I have been running Montana Pitch Blend for close to 20 years now, still on my original super bucket from Schnees. I think it is great, and does a fabulous job of waterproofing.....but every boot I have used it on has cracked leather now. Not sure if the pitch blend just attracts more dirt and causes the leather to crack as the dirt just grinds away in the cracks. Or if I am just expecting more from my boots than they can give. I always brush my boots clean before applying more grease, and grease them religiously.

Anyone have better luck with something else? I am looking for something to put on a classic pair of Fabiano's I just found at our local thrift store NIB! In my size, none the less. So this is regular old time tanned leather, not the Chrome tanned stuff, found on some high end boots these days.

Any ideas?

I'm no leather expert, but I've used Obenauf's LP with complete success on my leather boots....


Obenauf's LP

I've had real good luck with Sno-seal, also beeswax based. I have not had a leather cracking problem with it.

I'm in Sitka Deer's camp and love beeswax!

Alan

If I want waterproof, I use Gore-Tex. I've never found a leather treatment I've really liked.

Gore-Tex will keep your feet dry, but not warm. They put the bootie on the inside of the insulation. In the wet, the leather and insulation soak up and your feet are nice and dry inside a bucket of ice water. For the wet stuff, I've found that oversize, uninsulated boots with heavy socks are warmer than insulated boots.

I use Obenauf's twice a year and I am good to go!

I swear by Danner Boot Dressing.

http://www.danner.com/accessories/boot-care/brown-boot-dressing.html

sno seal

Thanks guys. That Obenaufs looks like just the thing. I have used sno-seal and just didn't find it lasts as long as the others. Gore-tex? I have several pairs of Danner and assolos that are gore-tex and its great when new, but never had a pair stay dry over two years, always seem to leak like a sieve just as soon as the warranty gives up, and then there is no way to fix them or grease them back up....Just my experience.

I used Obenaufs for years without nary a complaint. Good stuff in my book. A buddy turned me onto the Nixwax stuff and I've been very happy with it as well. I think the Nixwax is a little more user friendly but could slum either and happily.

I made my living working in the snow and rain and Mink Oil and Sno Seal has never let me down.Don't plan to change either anytime soon!

Jayco

Sno-Seal is worse than useless... It will not last a full day in real wet weather. Straight beeswax lasts far better than anything else I have tried (all the mentioned products and then a bunch more) and completely prevents leather from getting that sloppy loose fit from soaking up water.

You may not actually need waterproof leather, but if you do, beeswax trumps everything else. Most of the others are simply ways to make beeswax application easier. They do nothing to improve on what beeswax does.

Not true from what I have seen..Heat your boots up so it goes into the pours,and it works just fine or atleast did for me on real leather.Rain or snow,my feet never got wet using it and I worked in the elements,not just a hunting or fishing trip.

To each his own.

Jayco

You put Sno-Seal on your sneakers?

I've never had any luck with Sno-Seal

This has absolutely nothing to do with you,huntsonora....But playing word games with a few idiots here that don't have any idea, is entertaining...

Type in sneakers at cabella's and you get this....



A guy has to love the net when he is bored!Yup and I suppose they work just dandy..More guys are wearing tennis shoes and sneakers than one thinks........

Jayco

I have to ad this in all seriousness....

When I was pulling green Chain at a little saw mill seven miles up the Coeur d'Alene River in North Idaho,the warmest/driest footwear I have tried was nothing but tennis shoes with the old rubber galoshes,and all for about $30 bucks..

Man,don't knock it till you try it!!!

Jayco

I have had to show a few folks how useless Sno-Seal is and it takes just a few minutes... No one ever tries plain beeswax after using Sno-Seal and does not say the same thing. Anyone that suggests any boot dressing equals beeswax has never tried it.

You may not need truly waterproof boots... and commercial dressings might be good enough for what you do, but straight beeswax simply beats all the rest by a wide margin.

Jayco
Care to clarify who you are calling idiot?

Yeah

Bear grease and a horse somtimes can be wreck.

Sitka

It surely was not you.This hole tennis shoe/sneakers use as hunting attire has just turned funny.Lot's of people have used tennis shoes/sneakers hunting including myself, but there are those with little or no experience that say it is foolish.

Yes,I wore Tennis Shoes(not sneakers) hunting this year along with Sorrels in the snow..No broken ankles/twisted knee's/cold feet just much more stealth than alot of boots will give you.

And back on topic...Sno Seal has worked for me if I heat the leather good to open the pours and then apply on a nice hot boot and then take it out of the heat and it kinda seals in.Between Mink Oil and Sno Seal,I have never had to look around for another alternative as there always on the shelf in the areas I live and work in.That is just my experience with Sno Seal.





Jayco

Snow seal makes the leather soften and stretch/breakdown IME.

Just so you guys know, Sno Seal is made using 65% bees wax mixed with 35% mineral spirits, which is an old timey bees wax recipe to waterproof leather.

I've used Montana Pitch Blend for quite a long time, prior to that I used Pecard's. I've not had the same issues as you described. The Pecard's would leave a sticky tar residue which I always disliked, but any excess of Pitch Blend would wipe off leaving a dry to the touch finish. The only time I experienced the dry cracking leather was when I made the mistake of leaving leather too close to the stove or fire too often.

Best

The beeswax in the Sno-Seal is not the issue, obviously... The solvents are added to make the beeswax easier to apply, but fail to account for what happens as that 35% (by your numbers) of the product evaporates. Straight beeswax has half again as much wax with none leaving to create "pours" in the process.

As I keep saying, you may not need straight beeswax type waterproofing, but nothing else comes close if you truly do.

I have yet to wear out a pair of beeswaxed boots. Before beeswax I got a year or two from Danner uppers. I have destroyed a pair of boots in one week of sidehilling in shale. I have done the same hunt for repeated weeks in the same area in boots that are still going strong...

How do you apply the beeswax?

I heat the boots with a heat gun (air) and rub the wax on the heated leather until it melts and soaks in. I move on as each area takes up its fill. I repeat any areas that look dry.

The welts get lots of extra wax, also.

They stiffen up and require a little break-in, but a couple hours in warm weather will cure that quickly.

I also do not have good luck using straight wax over Sno-Seal or Mink Oil.

If you decide to melt it on the stove and brush it on to speed the delivery you need to realize how easy it is to light that stuff off.

Bear grease.

Perchard Leather Dressing is used by the Smithsonian. It works great.

Thanks, I have been using Mink Oil because that is what is available here. It really doesn't last when it is wet.

You have the internet. Everything is available there.

http://www.bootgrease.com/ bearguard leather teatment. Works like a charm. Beeswax and bear fat!!!!!!!

Anyone hear of an old time recipe involving Neatsfoot, beeswax and tallow. Cant remember portions. Was a lengthy post on saddle care I think that ended up in boot dressing also.... Would like to know portions if anyone has ever heard of it....

Thanks

Woofer

It stinks so bad I can't imagine using it while hunting.

Obenauf's is the best I've ever used but by the time you plug up all the leather's pores with wax you might as well be wearing a rubber boot {clammy feet}. No thank's, I much prefer a Gore-Tex lined boot. My current Gore-Tex lined Irish Setter's have been through three seasons and I can still stand ankle deep in swamp water all day and be perfectly dry when I go home. My last pair went 6 years before they started to leak and I wore those to work every single day for 5 months out of the year. Someone else is welcome to my share of beeswax or bear grease. I'll never go back to trying to turn leather into rubber.

Sitka, do you use straight honeycomb wax, or do you have a different type that's already melted into bars, cakes, or such?

I've been as pleased with Sno-Seal for almost 30 years as anything. Any of the oil based stuff softens the leather and depending on the type of oil can rot the thread in the stitching. Most of the wax type stuff works no better than Sno-Seal. Sno Seal leaves something to be desired though. I found in the 70's while climbing Mt Rainer, that Sno-seal would last a day or so in hard climbing in snow. We carried extra to put on the boots at night before the next day's climb. That experience has held true for almost 40 years now. I've had Sno-Seal treated boots for over 20 years, eventually even their leather ended up cracking. Yes, I've tried the wax/pine pitch types too. Worked about the same as Sno Seal for my purposes, usually more expensive.

For "dress' type boots/shoes, paste shoe shine wax only, none of that liquid junk. A good brush, soft cloth, lots of elbow grease, and a nice shine! Boots that last 20yrs too.

Sitka, I'd like to try your method, thanks for posting it. Please post the type/source of your wax, or PM me if you'd rather not put it up on the board. ( I may have access to some beeswax combs)

Spoken like someone with absolutely no idea what he is talking about. The lack of "rubber boot" foot is obvious to those that have actually used beeswax...

Valsdad
I have used every kind of wax I have been able to get my hands on... Some straight from drippings off the hive, captured on strings and nuts... And I have used highly refined, and over-priced stuff, too. No differences aside from odor, and that is pleasant, to my nose.

I damn well guarantee I've spent more time in waxed and/or greased leather boots than you ever will in your lifetime ! I don't work indoors and have earned my living for nearly 40 years in a pair of boots. In fact, I don't wear anything else but boots, 16+ hours a day, 365 days a year, rain, shine or snow. Waxed leather is the pits and I know damn good and well what I'm talking about.

right....

Whatever little gunsmith boy. Does it get weely, weely wet and snowy in your little shop ?

I've spent my fair share of time wearing greased Whites for the last ten years and can honestly say Whites boot grease and Obenaufs are the two best. Can't get my head around the emotional pissing contests about boot grease though.

Absolutely agree 100%...

If the waxed leather is so bad how come you wore it for so long?

Doubt seriously you have come close to matching my time in waxed leather boots, but it is your fantasy, so carry on.

I have more time in really bad weather than you can imagine. No idea where you live, work, and or hunt, but doubt it has anything on Kodiak for wet and with a dozen Booner deer from Kodiak (with plenty of people from here that have seen them) there is little chance it was done on one hunt in a small pen...

The man that started this thread wants to know which boot dressing will be best for his new(old) leather boots!! Not nessasarily which is the best water proofer.

I too don't understand why one would be so emtionally attached to their boot dressing

I told you how much I wear boots and I'll not tell you again. I switched over to Gore-Tex for use in the wet and snow about 16-18 years ago now, so maybe even you can figure out how much time I've spent wearing waxed leather. Suffice it to say a few weeks a year for your hunting trips ain't gonna surpass it sweet pea and I don't much care whether a known thief {you} believes it or not.

9point3
Plain beeswax will keep boots useful far longer than any other boot dressing... Nothing else comes close. It also keeps water out of the leather far longer than anything else. Nothing else comes close.

When posters say things patently untrue to bolster their arguments it misleads others to doing things that are not in their best interest.

For example Irish Setter boots are not magic... Use second-tier waterproofing like Obenauf's and by the end of a couple days, maximum, they will be waterlogged and stretched beyond safe use for anything requiring support. Sno-Seal will not last a day... Suggesting Obenauf's is too much and the Irish Setter boots are going to be functional boots after repeated, prolonged, swamp water soaking is bullschit. Notice there is absolutely NO leather dressing listed? Gore-Tex is going to do it all!!!

I am not THAT adamant about beeswax... If you notice I have repeatedly said you might not need beeswax level waterproofing and I have listed lots of drawbacks to wax... I simply resent obvious smoke being blown up ticklish orifi by pretenders.

Some years back I had a guy show up in Kodiak for a chartered deer hunt wearing leather "boots" with dress shoe soles! I had given everyone the rundown on what works and what was absolutely needed. No wax and no grip will not last long on Kodiak. The guy never left the beach and bitched about not seeing deer. Boots are way too important for what we do and keeping them functional is even more important. I guarantee bare Irish Setters would be a total failure on the average Kodiak hunt, Gore-Tex included.
art

Not counting dinks?

You obviously have NO EXPERIENCE with Gore-Tex if you think you can't stand in ankle deep water all day, day after day, without a bit of a leak. The uppers of my current Irish Setters, being primarily constructed of 1000 denier Cordura nylon with some sort of hard rubber heel and toe caps and only a small amount of leather along the sides of the footbed, don't seem to stretch much no matter how long they're exposed to water. Open your mind and learn something for a change you arrogant, stupid thief. Talk about a [bleep]' pretender ! Oh and BTW, I've worked outdoors every day for nearly my entire adult life. Much of that time very near the NY/Quebec border with snow ass deep to a tall indian in winter and temps down to -30F. It might not be your blessed Kodiak but it ain't no [bleep]' picnic to work in either. Gore-Tex, good socks and plenty of Thinsulate are a blessing.

Let's see, first year of college at SUNY Plattsburgh, a parent from the area between Massena and Malone, and an uncountable number of relatives in the area. No, do not know anything about cold or snow or wet in your area. And well over 40 years in Alaska...

The issue about Gore-Tex is not the Gore-tex as much as the leather. Did you read what I wrote? What good are 40 pound boots with leather stretched to size 20? You are the one that mentioned Irish Setters as the great boot...

And you have to go and add comments and insults about another entirely different subject you know nothing about...
art

Gortex quality boots-nikwax treatment every couple days in really wet hunting conditions-I have never found any wax/mink oil that lasts more than two days in the field in nasty conditions. Take two or more pair of boots hunting and swap them out as needed.

They say that silicon,sno seal/ bees wax do not let your leather boots breathe. Synthetic wax products like nikwax are supposed to.

Where does one get a PHD in BOOTDRESSING?

Kodiak, Kodiak, Kodiak,

Been there as well as many others and wet brush is wet brush

Hunted Kodiak, Afognak, the ABCs Cordova, Ketch, the AK Range the 40 mile and there is nothing that makes Kodiak the ultimate boot testbed

What is your proof that beeswax is the be all-end all of boot dressing.

Nothing that makes Kodiak the ultimate testbed? Agreed, there are lots of places that would do nicely... But it IS the Farthest NW Temperate ainforest in North America. And it IS as good as any you listed and better than some. And I have been in all you listed and a lot more.

And I strongly disagree with the contention that "Wet brush is wet brush" as there is a huge difference for boots between wet tundra brush on a peat moss sponge and wet brush on essentially dry ground.

My proof is strictly what I have found and what just about everybody that has tried it says. By your comments I would believe you have not.

Now, the incredibly basic point I am trying to make is hardly in the Boot Dressing 101 category. Plain leather boots not dressed with something reasonable are NOT going to work for standing in swamps all day. Sorry, but experience trumps that notion, cold.

Thanks, I may try some over the winter. I too find the odor pleasant, but then again, I've kept a hive before. I'll look for a source of the cheap stuff.

On the Gore-Tex issue. Yep works really fine until my upward pointing toenails (even when they're trimmed) wear a hole in the lining. Then I hope I'm in a dry spot. If not compromised and if the boot is primarily nylon with leather accents, they will provide some support even when soaked. I tend not to hunt "swamps" so I therefor won't get into which boot is best. I'd probably go for something along the lines of a "Juneau" tennis shoe if I was to go swamp hunting.

My feet sweat a lot, I go barefoot or wear sandals (yes, even while hunting in some areas) until the snow flies mostly, except at work (steel toes required), so I generally go with unlined leather boots that breath. Even in waxed boots my feet breath better than in nylon gore-tex boots, so that's what I tend to wear. Wax 'em good, good wool socks, and generally good to go. No, I don't work outdoors as much as some ( I work on boats/barges 4 months a year, mostly in good weather, rubbers and Helly's if not) and can't imaginge having to wear boots 16 hrs a day. 10-12 hrs while working and my feet need a change of pace. Even while hunting the boots come off as soon as I get into camp. I Don't put shoes/boots on until I actually get to work. I have a wonderful pair of hip length Apache style buckskin moccasins I wear hunting in dry weather (lots of that in AZ and E WA where I primarily hunt), with rawhide soles, and they are "very" sneaky. Those might be my favorite "boots" as the old Apache woman who taught me to make them called them.

You all enjoy your winter weather, whichever boot dressing you choose to use or not use.

I wonder if the OP got his answer?

Thanks again for the beeswax info Sitka,

Ever tried anti-perspirant on your sweaty feet? It makes a huge difference for me in hot weather, especially...

I will second the Sno-Seal....remember buying my very first can from REI in Seattle....been using it for over 40 years now.

I like pure beeswax for leather knife sheaths and leather work gloves. I prefer Obenauf's or Sno-Seal for leather footwear. Pure beeswax gets too inflexible in the cold and does not allow your feet to breathe. If you use a heat gun or hair dryer when you apply Obenauf's or Sno-Seal the waterproofing ability of these products is greatly increased and will last much longer. If you apply two good coats when the leather is new and clean, periodic applications should preserve the leather for a number of years of good service. If I plan to be in swamp or standing water for a long period of time I'll be wearing rubber boots.

Always used sno-seal. Seem to work for me.

Huberd's Shoe Grease. It is a beeswax formula that has been around for years.

I keep bees and I'm a cheap bastage so I've always just melted some beeswax in a double boiler and added a little olive oil to it to keep it from stiffening up a little and used that on warmed boots,knife sheaths,holsters etc. It seems to keep the leather in good shape and lasts pretty good.

I use the same stuff on patches for my muzzle loader too and it'll take the place of chap stick in a pinch.

I am by no means an expert on leather care and I live in Arkansas so my boots don't get beaten by the extremes that some of y'all who live in my dream hunting areas do.

Plain old Muck boots and some good wool socks have been all I've ever needed for hunting out West and around here, course I've yet to hunt Alaska.

Gunner

Sno Seal works well for me.

Smiling mink.

I've lived in the same brand of boots for the last 30 years, and feel a lot of cracking issues are due to leather characteristics rather than treatment. I typically have 3 to 4 pairs of Whites on hand. Some pairs will go through 4 or 5 rebuilds, and others crack and go to hell after their second.

I've had a pair of Sorrel packs for near 20 years and one has cracked while the other boot surface is still intact. It's the bottoms that are near worn out on those.

There are also marked difference in the feel of the leather even within the same brand and model. The durable ones remain soft and pliable, while those prone to cracking simply seem more rigid and unforgiving. All get the same treatment (Sno Seal, neatsfoot oil, and some brown polish now and then).

The odor of most of the high end boot treatments suggest a beeswax base.

I typically treat mine during the season when most of us are not thinking of cold and moisture. Get a good hot 100 degree burner day in July or August, and my boots are placed in the sun for about an hour and then given all the grease and oil I can rub in.

The only boots I've found to be truly forever water proof are made of rubber. Then one gets wet from the inside out. The fabrics are wonderful in that even my waders will remain dry with a full day wading in waist+ deep water. A little wear and dirt though, and they too will begin to leak.

A friend of mine that works cattle in all kinds of weather told me to try a product called NEATSFOOT OIL.It works GREAT to repel water and makes the leather more plyable.I used to play professional slow pitch soft ball and used it to make my gloves softer and keep them from drying out in the heat.It works GREAT for all leather products,boots,saddles,gloves and such.Skeeter

I have worked in cold warehouses with cold concrete floors for 30+ years. I learned early on that low top shoes kept my feet far warmer/cooler than boots, no matter the temperature.