I know there are many types sold at a pretty penny. But there should be a home brewed mix that is just as good and cheap. Any ideas?

frequently polished boots ar3 pretty water proof for all but total submersion.

Hi my name's Sitka Deer


beeswax is your friend

Mix beeswax, mink oil, and pine rosin. 60/30/10.

You could never be this pretty! Even though you are a hairdresser!

What he said but change the ratio 100/0/0

LMAO!

Sno-Seal ain't expensive, it's easier to use than beeswax, and a can will last you a year or better even if you're wearing your boots out in rough weather all year. Won't soften boot leather like mink oil or lanolin. It's the only thing I'll use on my outdoor boots.

Tag

Somebody let me know when you come to a consensus.

This,

http://www.obenaufs.com/

Or what Doc said.

Good boots treated with Obenaudfs, I have worked walking in and out of a creek for three weeks, and went home with dry feet everyday.

Beaver oil, the pure straight uncut stuff, taken from the beaver's oil sac.

This. I have used it for years and it beats anything else I have tried.

All the above works BUT it works better if u heat(tiny) your oil/wax of choice,then ... Toss your striped down boots in the oven at low temp and rub/paint it on ...in it goes...paint again ...in an out it goes ....u will know when they are ready....PS u didn't have to pay for this info ...but u are now in-riched !

I've had good luck with Montana Pitchblend and another beeswax product...keep in mind none of these products will make up for slipshod boot construction.

+2 on Obenaufs....

I've used the same "can" for more than a decade. Works great.

Another vote for Obenauf's. Best leather treatment I've ever used.

This is what Russell Boots said I should use. Made a 20 year old pair of worn out boots like new again

Was a long term hardcore Sno-Seal user for 25 years, then tried Obenaufs - it has worked a lot better for me.

Another vote for Snoseal/Obenaufs.

I use a old hairdryer to heat the boots and also melt in the Snoseal after I rub a healthy amount on the boots. I work it in small patches all the way around the boot. Wear rubber gloves and put some newspaper down, you will have the stuff everywhere.

I have a pair on Schnee Hunters that I bought in 1994 that the leather is still in great shape. They are going back in for the second re sole job and the leather looks the same as when they were a year old. I usually treat them twice a season.

Been using Snoseal since the middle 80's on boots and gloves

Put it on and hit it with a hair dryer and your good for a long time

Snoseal for me

Dang I wonder if all those young ladies in Anchorage didn't believe me when I told them my name was Art???

Pure beeswax.

SnoSeal rots the seams out sooner than they should.

Mostly Sno Seal for me too. Hair dryer in the winter to warm the boots and melt the stuff but in the summer, it makes for a great afternoon setting on the porch with a cold beer while the boots warm and bake in the sun.

Dale

Montana Pitch-Blend, though Obenauf's is good too.

When I was a kid, there were 10-15 mink farms near me. You could get all of the raw, unprocessed fat and mink oil you wanted for cheap.

Smelled like the back end of nasty old camel, but that stuff worked very well.

I always wanted to think it might have help with my muskrat trapping too. Probably not, but at 14 you can dream that it did.

I wish I could give a "+1" to you good gents, but my experience with Snoseal is very different. I've had it whipped off boots by wet, tall, grass in a matter of hours, after applying to warm boots and followed with a hair dryer.

It does work well for me on the leather uppers of Sorels....that are covered with pants.

+1

I use Obenaudf's because it's a family business right down the road from me but there's others also made with Bees Wax and Pine Tar that work too...
By the time you chase down all the products needed to make your own (if you can even find it) you'll spend twice as much and it won't work any better....

Many years ago back when there were "surplus" stores, I bought a can of boot treatment/waterproofing the Govt used. It had a distict smell of wax but had other stuff in it. I would heat the can on the stove and stir it up then wipe it on. Worked good, but if you put it on too thick, it caked, which supports the wax content.

I have plenty of beeswax, do you heat it to apply? I also have lanoline. I never heard of Obenaudfs, but I'll look for it.

It's messy, but neatsfoot oil and paraffin wax melted together until the wax pretty much stays in the oil, applied hot, will waterproof the heck out of stuff. Leaves a wax "shell" of sorts that looks ugly. This stuff used to work well on my leather work boots in CO, WY, UT winters- ranch work, power line stuff. All winter, all day, every day. Used to be cheap, too. You can brush or put on with rag, and even buff it in, to a point. Got a pair of loggers in the closet so soaked with it they're kind of armored, last treatment was early 90s. I'd put them on and wade ankle deep, right now.

Another fan of Obenauf's. It's not that expensive, and a small can/tub lasts a long time.

I tend to treat my boots around this time of year, or a little later...usually after turkey season and again before archery season. I put them in the sun on warm day and let them get pretty warmed up, then just rub the Obenauf's into all the leather surfaces and it's done.

I've used it on my Meindl boots and my Asolos and it's kept them looking great through fairly hard use. I also use it on my Montana and M1907 slings, with good results.

At least around here, it takes a lot more than just sunlight to melt the beeswax into the leather.

Think oven, hair dryer, and heat gun.

I agree with Doc 100%. Sno-Seal is mostly (I think) beeswax but much more easy to apply and comes in both cans and tubes. Why would anyone mess with mixing your own when this is so handy and cheap? It keeps the leather stiff and stable and works on all kinds of leather including boots, tack, holsters, etc.

I have tried most alternatives, including even French-produced mine oil, and they really mess up good leather. Maguiars car seat spray works well for its intended purpose, but not for outdoor waterproofing.

I have a pair of Russell's bird shooter boots that I have worn all over the world including Africa, through streams and snow and 100-plus degree temps. I have had them since the 1970s and while they look a bit scruffy, with Sno-Seal applied regularly, they may never wear out!

Exactly right.

If you can't find it let me know.

Snoseal ? Btdt


No staying power ime


Would like to try obenaufs


I cuss that dang Sitka deer every time I put on a beeswax treated gloves that ain't been sitting in the sun


But once those gloves are broken in. Pretty skookum

All I do is basically follow the Obenauf's recommended process.

Not sure what is best, but what they've suggested has always seemed to work well.

Here's what they recommend:

http://www.obenaufs.com/category-s/127.htm

Sorry, but Sno-Seal is the worst of the commercial crap out there. If you want to waterproof your boots every time it rains and have wet feet in the process, every time, get after it.

Might work in West TX...

Obenauf's is better than most by a long shot, but far short of straight beeswax. In serious Kodiak rain they will keep your feet dry for weeks of horrible weather. Sno-Seal will not last a day.

Far more important than staying dry though is boot stretch when they get waterlogged. Sno-Seal will leave you with dangerously loose boots if you are in tough country.

Plus, it lubricates the leather far better against abrasion. I have worn out new Danner boots in a single sheep hunt in bad shale. Since switching to straight beeswax many years ago I have had my three pairs of Danners resoled multiple times, tops still looking good...

One caveat about straight beeswax is the fact it does not work well on leather that has been tainted by other products.

Huberd's Shoe Grease.

Pretty good stuff, for an 80+ year old mom and pop family recipe.

But it wears off, like most store bought products, when walking in abrasives like grass or snow and ice.

One product I've had good success with isn't commercially available.
Deer grease.

Skinning out dead deer it worked so good on my hands and gloves that I started using it regularly.
Deer and elk skin gloves love the stuff. Gloves last twice as long, even out fixing fence and riding down calves for cutting and branding.

I rub it on boots, too.
It's free.
And we have plenty of it from September through December.

Ball gloves get lanolin.
Bees wax is for bow strings.

In this re-run about waterproofing leather, I will repeat my agreement with everything Sitka says re beeswax. But that's only if you want the best. Re experience, 65 years of tramping off trail with much of that time in real rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island. The past 15 years or so have used nothing but beeswax except for an emergency app of milky liquid Nikwax once and personal try-outs of a few others.

Pure beeswax is harder to apply, but is longer lasting and protects leather better. I started using SnoSeal in the 60's and many products surpass it now. A couple of the best have gotten good mention here.

Deer/Elk fat is great for gloves.....I found that out by accident when skinning an Elk in MT.....it was to cold to go barehanded so I put on some leather gloves....they turned out to be the most comfortable longest lasting gloves I ever owned...I've never missed a chance to rub some Deer fat on my gloves since...

Huberds Shoe Grease is definitely another good one that's made with beeswax and pine pitch....
And who doesn't stuff that comes in a paint can....
Just reading the back of that can a minute ago...FWIW Huberds doesn't speak very highly of using animal fats or bi-ptoducts on boots....

Animal fats are horrible for waterproofing leather!

They will rot quickly in damp weather.

Okay. Im convinced.
I'll try some bee wax next time on my boots.

I'm 41. My boots were bought for me on my 18th birthday. I am still wearing them, they have been rebuilt many times, but the original leather is still in great shape. I have only used obnaufs on them. Why change?

If you live in relatively dry country you may not want or need the very best...

Everything added to beeswax for waterproofing is either to make it easier to apply, or cheaper. There is nothing that improves the finished product...

Forgot to add that beeswax is far better at fending off abrasion, too...

I have been in those boots in the Pacific Northwest, alaska and clear to Nevada. I'm not saying you're wrong, but let's be honest. ....there is something going right for them to still be kicking.

I've found nothing better than Obenauf...

Neatsfoot oil, being rendered from cattle bones, would qualify as an animal bi-product (sic), no?

Have you encountered any rand delamination from it? While it did rain here once, I don't need the best waterproofer so ease of application is more of a factor for me.

Aside from a brief fling with Obenauf's in the past most of my experience is watching it fail on boots of slow learners... I have not seen rand failures with it.

Neatsfoot oil is actually the synovial fluid in the hooves and joints.