Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Beeswax for boots?

There is a lot to be said about picking the right boots for the right conditions. Schnees are not meant for the deserts of AZ. However the are the schit in snow or wet grass.

I have a pair of Schnees that have gone through almost as many configurations as MD's. Which gave me a bunch of opportunities to test different boot grease. In general someone makes something that is better for your boots than you can make at home. Here are my picks...

Nikkwax - its the stuff if you have chrome tanned leather, suede out or any breathable membrane in your boots. Just follow their instructions. Using anything that contains wax, fat, or petroleum product isn't meant for chrome tanned leather and/or will plug up or trash your "breathable" liner.

For oil tanned leather, the old time stuff...I have gone through the sno-seal type petroleum type stuff, definitely the worst for the leather and only marginally durable and waterproof. Next best is the "pitch blend" type stuff. Better than petroleum based, but the pitch and the animal fats attract dirt and rot. While better at waterproofing, the leather will eventually crack and rot. My current favorite...Obenaufs, hands down. Almost as waterproof as pitch blend, but really keeps the leather nice and resilient and prevents cracking and dirt accumulation. If you haven't really run it, you don't know what you are missing.

Me too. Been wearing gore-tex since since shortly after it came out and only had 1 pair of boots leak. A cheap pair of hiking boots that I had already gotten my money's worth out of long ago.

I wear a lot of gore-tex boots too, but am somewhat disappointed in their effectiveness. I find them fine for snow and crossing an occassional stream, but lacking in really constant wet conditions.

I do a lot of prairie restoration work in the midwest. We (partner and I) start early in the morning when the vegetation is absolutely saturated and spend several hours a day in this stuff, generally getting saturated up to our upper thighs. Most gore-tex boots seem to break down after about a month of this, even the high dollar ones (Danners, Vasque, etc.). Rubber bottom boots won't take the constant thorns and rocks. Rubber packs cause our feet to sweat so much in the heat (90 degrees +) that our feet get as soaked as they do when we wear leaky boots.

I have even seen some guys try waders. They get torn up pretty fast and the sweating problem gets severe. After a few years of this we have given up, wear leaky boots, and let our feet get wet!

Luckily, this is a post-retirement job and I can quit anytime and remain financially stable. As long as the pleasure and satisfaction I gain from my work outweigh the damn wet feet, I will stick with it!

I used Sno-Seal for several years but I think it affects breathability. I stopped using it and my feet seem to sweat less. For certain boots, I'd still use it.

I'm now using the Kennetrek lube and it seems a lot easier to apply than Sno-Seal. Hopefully it doesn't affect the breathability as much. I'd prefer not to use a lube, but I had a warranty claim on my last pair of Kennetreks and they said the leather was dried out so I thought I'd give their lube a try.

Here's what Dave Page, cobbler in Seattle wrote about Sno-Seal:

"You just can't work on the boots after it's on the leather," Page says of Sno-Seal. "Most hiking boots today are made of dry-tanned leather that uses chromium salts and chromium sulfates. Modern uppers sit down on top of sole units and are glued on, not stitched. To get soles to stick to the glue line, you have to be able to get the leather absolutely clean.

"Sno-Seal, Mink Oil, Neatsfoot Oil are all products that work fine as waterproofing, but they're formulated for oil-tanned leather--leather from 60 years ago," Page says. "There's just something that's in Sno-Seal that gets impregnated in dry-tanned leather. I don't know what it is. Once it's in there you can't clean it out and the leather will just not accept adhesives."

If you spend a week in Alaska hunting, even goretex boots will leak if not treated. I usually use Obenaufs, which I think has some beeswax in it. This stuff on goretex boots will stay dry in a constant Alaska drizzle for a week or two.

I experienced that with Gore-Tex jackets and pants while in Valdez. They work for a few days, but they just get overwhelmed. And it doesn't even need to be raining! Walk through the brush and you'll get soaked head-to-toe as if it just downpoured. Oregon coast is the same way.

Okay I definitely like the Skidmore's stuff for leather but I found something to use on my coat that may be closer to pure wax that Skidmore's or Sno-Seal...

http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=8981

Okay Barbour's is *not* wax. I have in my possession the Barbour's thorn proof, mink oil, Montana Pitch blend, Skidmores and Sno-Seal. I also have virgin coconut oil and a cake of pure beeswax. I'd say if you are in the habit of using mink oil coconut oil would be better. Although, maybe not in bear territory. All considered, I'll repurchase the Skidmores and they have stuff for wood as well. My mom bought a quart of the cream for kitchen cabinets and knife handles.

For those interested in beeswax, don't buy the high dollar stuff sold by the ounce, instead.......

http://www.amazon.com/BEESWAX-BLOCK..._4?ie=UTF8&qid=1326764621&sr=8-4

I've used various products over the years. Most recently, I used a mixture of beeswax and Hooflex (a pine tar, mink oil blend. Pure mink oil made my boots squeak which they do not do with the beeswax. This is on Scarpa leather boots. On the synthetic, gortex lined boots, silicone spray is about all that works. GD

A couple of years ago I cleaned out my shoe polish and boot stuff. I had a bunch of 1/4 to 1/2 full tins etc of boot dressing. I emptied them all out into a metal Folgers coffee can and heat the contents on a Coleman stove. There was some beeswax, Hubberds, Sno-Pruff, Mink Oil, and some Neats foot oil, maybe even some other stuff. Later on I used the mixture on an old pair of leather Red Wing Bird Hunters. I wasn't overly impressed with the results but repeated over time a couple more treatments. The treatments were followed by a session near the heating stove.
Voila! Worked great! I haven't had to repeat the process for at least 5 hunting seasons. I gueess even a blind pig can find an acorn occassionally.

ROUNDUP

Sorry to dig this up but had to comment. I have worked in the bush for the past 20 years and have tried most everything out there, the biggest problem to balance is waterproofing <> leathers ability to breathe. Usually there is a tradeoff. I found birch tar oil a few years ago and wish I would have known about it 20 years ago. It gives the same waterproofing as a wax but lets the leather breathe, never have sweaty feet problems using it. It also makes the leather quite resistant to molds, fungus, bacteria which is a nice bonus as I have a habit of forgetting my boots for during spring breakup in my dry bag! Has an awesome smoky smell to boot!

I've spent all day from daylight to dark ankle deep in a swamp with Gore-Tex boots and my feet were still dry at the end of the day. I've had a bunch of different pairs of Gore-Tex boots over the years. Some leaked the first day, others developed leaks after a couple months with fairly little use and others have lasted several hunting seasons without leaking a bit. The best so far have been my current Irish setters. They've been through 8 seasons now and still don't leak at all. Screw treated leather boots. I did my time with them. By the time you get them plugged up enough with wax to be waterproof your feet will sweat so bad you might as well be wearing rubber or just let them leak. Your feet will be just as wet at the end of the day.

I melt a toilet wax ring, coat boots, lasts several years.

I've been doing that for years on both work boots and hunting.

Use a heat gun to drive it into the leather. Works great with no ill effect to the leather. Cheap as dirt as well.

I'll add another vote for Obenauf's.

What is the composition of the material in a wax ring?

Vegetable and petroleum waxes.

Cool, thanks.

Do you mean like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Bear...id=1585964183&sr=8-2#customerReviews