Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Boot waterproofing?

Just bought a pair of Danner Recurve Moc toe uninsulated boots. They r a full leather boot with a nylon upper. I want to condition them right off the bat before I wear them to start breaking them in. They r super comfortable and light and is the reason I picked them up. Got them for my trip to Africa next year. Not sure if I need a leather conditioner/wax on the leather then a silicon spray for the nylon upper? Or just spray the whole boot? They do have a Gortex liner and are waterproof but want the added waterproofing security. Curious what u guys recommend?


Thanks Roy

Bear fat

I would put a quality leather conditioner on them. I’m partial to Montana Pitch Blend and Schnee’s. Pitch blend has a unique pine pitch smell. I like it. Both of them slightly darken leather. I’ve also used Crispi leather conditioner which doesn’t darken. Kenetrek boot wax is good too.

Why ask a bunch of people that you don’t know what they think they know? A simple call to Danner would be your best bet.

I had a problem with some Zamberlan boots and talked to their CS, they recommended a spray waterproofing and I went with their suggestion.

My dad always said “ there are two kinds of people that work on watches, jewelers and idiots” the same thing applies to all manner of men related topics. Look for a jeweler when you want your watch fixed…

Silicone on nylon and Sno proof on leather.

Exactly. Call Danner.

When the topic of boot dressings come up all sorts of recipes will get thrown out that will stretch from cougar piss to wax toilet rings. Who would have ever guessed that greasing a boot would be so complex?

I guess I will go against the grain (yet again) and somewhat support getting info off this forum vs Danner Customer Service. I just called Danner and got the ultra annoying, though usual automated response, to which I then pushed a few buttons and was on hold for a few minutes just to get the normal "we are experiencing longer than normal wait time" spiel.

One never knows and a person could get the same uninformed person at Danner's CS that they could get here or any other forum. A lot of CS representatives no nothing about the product they're working for, just like with any other company. The difference is here if a poster is someone who has traditionally given decent advice, one could presume it is again decent advice.

For me, many, many spray waterproofing brands haven't worked at all. It may last a day or so in mildly moist conditions. I have gone to rubbing a leather conditioner on any leather part at first, then waxing the hell out of every seam. Half way through the season I will unlace the boot, scrub the heck out of every nook and cranny with a brush, then rewax the hell out of it. It is the only thing I have found to work well and yes, the crapper wax ring is what I use, as opposed to a wax made (or should I say: labeled) specifically for boot waterproofing.

I'd cut out the CS person and check their website as a first step. Manufacturers have written recommendations for different boots depending on materials. You can get a CS person who thinks they know more than they do, but usually what's in writing is accurate.

I've used the toilet wax ring deal on many work boots and hunting boots over the last 15 - 20 yrs.

Heat up and melt the wax with a paint stripper heat gun, slobber it onto the boot and apply the gun to the boot to drive in the wax. It's amazing how much wax some boots will soak up. It's cheap and works very well. No need to change it up for me.

Gore-Tex here

My hunting boots are gore-tex. I wax the leather over that.

First, I agree with others in using/considering what the maker recommends. Outside of that, I've had good success with Montana Pitch and Obenauf's, but I just use Obenauf's now.

Been using SnoSeal 45-50 years on leather. No complaints.

flexseal......

as a pole climber for 35 years in dry , wet, hot , cold conditions i always climbed with tall leather expensive climbing boots " we called snake boots " i treated these boots heavy with Neats foot oil once a year i could get about 2 - 3 years out of a pair of boots, this brand oil on my boots kept my boots from roting the leather and all the sewing tread too. another important thing is drying your boots every nite from your all day sweat too.never had much problem with wet boots .

I use two pairs of work boots and alternate one day to the next. Always have dry boots the next day and no more stinky boots.

that`s great to be able to have two pair of boots , but when i was young with a young family and wearing the best boot for climbing pole work i could only afford in those days one good pair of West Coast climbing boots for a while, then after a while i was able to have the old pair of boots rebuilt by West Coast. this type of boot is expensive but they fit and feel great for the long days on climbers we called hooks ,i shot many deer with a bow wearing my climbing boots after work in my homemade deer stands up in the air 15-20 feet.

Obenaufs LP is what I use and it works very well

I have used Pecard's shoe and boot oil for years with great results.
https://pecard.com/shop/classic/leather-boot-shoe-care/

I was under the impression that Africa was drier than a popcorn fart. Nikwax waterproof fabric and leather boot spray is recommended for Gore-Tex boots to preserve the breathability of the Gore-Tex liner.

There’s no way in hell I am packing a second pair of boots on a backpack hunt.

Besides waterproofing, the big advantage of pure bees wax is how much it protects leather from cuts and scuffing on lava rock, etc. That would interest me more than the amount of waterproofing needed for dry parts of Africa.

For leather, Obenaufs is my go-to.

Boots are expensive, esp for a young family. While the initial cost is high, I found the long term cost was lower as the boots not only lasted longer from less use but also lasted longer as they were given a chance to dry out after a long day and not being used the next day.

I work in a an oil refinery in all conditions. I get about 3yrs or more from a decent set of work boots.

If you find a boot that you really really like, buy several pair if you can possibly afford it.

The maker will change them to something you don't like as well, or discontinue them.

About 30 years ago Merrill made an all leather almost seamless lightweight boot that my feet loved. I was leading wilderness camps at the time, hiking a lot from spring through late Fall. After wearing the first pair for a few months I went back and bought two more pairs. Should have bought more of them!

Given the problem of soles peeling off before boots are worn out these days, I don't know if that's sound advice.

I used Obenauf's on a pair of boots and the rubber rand started to peel from the leather soon after. Not the entire rand, but the edges near the leather. Did a quick internet search and saw many posts of the same. Not saying that Obenauf's is bad, but it might not be compatible with all boots.

I have used Sno Seal on various different makes of boots and never had a problem. Not saying that it is compatible with every boot though either.

So using the boot manufacturer's products might be a good place to start. That stated, I purchased one manufacturer's leather treatment creme and spray, and they simply sucked. Leather got soaked, which then overwhelmed the membrane. And most of these membrane lined boots take a long time to dry once wet. Sno Seal was my solution.

A dunk test in a container or sink is a good place to start, but walking in tall wet grass is even better. I think it is as bad or worse as any rain storm. If the leather gets soaked, it won't be long before the membrane gets overwhelmed.

Agree 100 percent! I've got a 10yr. old pair of 8" leather hunting boots made by LL Bean. Great boots. Bean has a crappy selection these days, so nothing I'd buy. I always keep a pair of the old Maine hunting boots, but it's not my go to deer season boot.

I used to love Browning boots and owned several. I think Redwing made lots of Browning's boots. Now, neither company has what I like and want.

Before someone stockpiles boots, they may want to read this.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/15606461/1

Nikwax applied as directed has worked well for me.

Why it's best to go w/ a MilSpec boot.


Bought a stack of NOS Belleville USMC Hot Weather boots, w/ the Mera*MAX polyurethane soles, for ~ $35/pop on clearance.

Outstanding lightweight boot that should last forever.







GR

THIS!

Never had any issues with leather/ gortex boots and Obenaufs LP. But, I cant say I am exceptionally hard on boots. I mostly hunt in damp or wet cool to cold places.

I’ve generally used Obenauf’s for full grain leather and Nikwax for nubuck and nylon. That said, I think it’s worth going with the manufacturer’s recommendation in many instances. I have had a few issues with rubber rand adhesives failing prematurely in the edges but am unsure if my waterproofing caused this.

I used Obenaufs on a pair of Kennetrek Hard Scrabble and the rands started lifting on the edges as soon s I started using them. A couple spots went deep from the edge of the rand like an air bubble. I’ve glued them now after my latest use and will see how they hold up. Not sure if there’s something in Obenaufs that reacts with Kennetreks rand glue or if it’s just a coincidence, but I recently bought an insulated pair of Kennetrek boots and bought their leather treatment just in case.

Absolutely!

If Sno-Seal works for you, waterproofing is not required. In my direct experience it will fail in a day of wet walking. Then the leather will stretch and if you are in rough country life will become dicey.

Protection from cuts and scuffs is a big reason why I love Obenaufs, as well.

I’ve used Obenaufs for past 10 years or so. It preserves leather better than anything else that I’ve tried and supposedly doesn’t clog Gortex membranes. In my experience Gortex doesn’t work all that great as far as breathing but a shot of spray deodorant on my feet and wool socks keep my feet dry.

Obenauf's is not in the same zip code with plain beeswax on wear resistance...

Well, seeing Obenauf's has beeswax as a key ingredient, I'd say not only is it in the same zip code, it resides on the outskirts of the same city.
But argue away – it's what you do.

The voice of NO experience wants to pick on the voice of one with significant experience with both. Before pure beeswax it was not uncommon to wear out a new boot on a single hunt in bad shale. With Obenauf's it was better. With plain beeswax every boot lasted for years. Huge difference. Feel free to try it and KMA.

I’ve not used pure beeswax, so won’t comment there, but Obenaufs has produced similar durability for me and my hunting partners to what you describe, with a bunch of hunts and a lot of miles in shale per pair of boots.

Obenauf's does not put a smooth top on the leather. It melts down in and gets rough quickly. Wax remains smooth and does not get scraped off quickly. There is a serious difference. in serious shale you cannot tell the boots are waxed with Obenauf's in very short order. It is more than orders of magnitude longer lasting.

This season has prolly made me a believer in wax. Chit.... my beloved mink oil prolly a thing of the past. Obenhaufs never once impressed me much. FWIW been using Kennetrek boot wax. snow, creek crossing multiple times daily, rain, putting boots on daily that don't hit a heater or boot dryer and my crispis are kicking ass keeping my feet dry.

Don’t worry about waterproofing, your Danners will be toast by the time you go to Africa

I keep adding coats of Obenaufs until the leather won’t absorb anymore, and it does build up to a surface layer.

Sno-seal or melt toilet wax ring

Do as you wish, but when you use straight beeswax you will instantly see the difference. Adding solvents makes application easier but compromises the wax. As the solvents evaporate you will see the fluffer resemblance, too.

It takes quite a bit longer to apply straight wax the first time... but you will not have to do it again for at least a year of serious use. That is not the case with Obenauf's.

One caveat: once solvent-heavy dressings have polluted the leather the straight wax is compromised by it. Start with new boots. Funny part is trying to apply something like Obenauf's on properly waxed boots...

Jordan;
Top of the morning to you my friend, I hope the day is behaving for you all and you're all healthy.

Although I've texted you a bunch of this information already, I've thought of a couple more things so hopefully it's okay I throw it up here instead of giving my thumbs a workout.

If I'm not mistaken it was likely Sitka who put me onto the straight beeswax thing and that might have been closing in on 15 years back.

Usually I pick up beeswax in a big block either at the farmer's market or the local Facebook Marketplace always has smaller beekeepers selling honey and sometimes beeswax too.

I don't treat dress boots with it because it does discolor them, but all my work boots over those years have had beeswax soaked into them. Especially when I was working on construction sites or doing machinery maintenance and repairs, the toes on steel toed boots always wear out first. The beeswax helped a lot with that, to the point where I was getting some resoled and reheeled so that was nice.

We need to remember that liquid beeswax is flammable - really and truly flammable - so I use a double boiler to melt the wax and if one is using a Coleman in the shop, be careful of the flame.

As I mentioned in the text, one absolutely can do the double boiler on the kitchen stove - BUT - if it's the new stove that you just bought with the new set of appliances, no amount of wax paper placed carefully all around is going to be enough. Well Jordan, it wasn't for me...

I suppose one can heat the boots up however it works best, but I find an old hair dryer or a very adjustable heat gun might work too. My shop heat gun produces a bit too much heat to use easily.

The boots get heated up so they're pretty close to hot to the touch, then the liquid beeswax gets worked into the leather with an old toothbrush. Have a couple of those on hand because even a hair dryer can make them get rather floopy. Also I've tried short paint brushes for application and while they work okay, an old toothbrush works better for me.

We'll keep on applying the beeswax until it's obvious the leather isn't absorbing any more, as you said with the Obenauf's.

When it's dry it can be buffed with a cloth and I usually do that was it both looks better and also seems to get dirty a bit less than not buffing it. It absolutely still will attract dust however.

For me the boots perform better on those days when it's snowed a few inches and it's starting to melt or it's been raining for days and one is bombing around in grass up to your waist. By "better" I'd say I mean they'll keep stiff or hold their shape and keep supporting my feet and ankles better than when the leather gets sloppy wet and doesn't support properly.

Hopefully that made some sense and was useful to you or someone out there.

All the best and good hunting.

Dwayne

Nonsense, again.

It is your fantasy, not mine. I have used SnoSeal quite a bit. Many folks hunting with me on Kodiak found out just how useless it is.

The latter for me has worked very well for years on both hunting boots and works boots.

Get a Peet boot dryer. Mine stays plugged in all the time. Work boots on it at night, my slip ons during the day while im at work. They last years and years, I believe a lifetime warranty also. I've had them plugged in for a solid 10 years at a time. I also, have the propane version in my old bumper pull camper for wet boots, works great also.

Sounds like failure of you and your party to choose the correct boots for the terrain and conditions.

You could be wrong, however.

In over 40 years of experience hunting, guiding, and transporting on Kodiak I believe I picked up more than a little knowledge on keeping feet dry. Quite a few folks here spent time with me there and are laughing at you now, but please do keep digging.

When they get truly soaked a day is not long enough to dry leather boots. Properly waxed boots never get that wet...

Have you used both to see the difference?

Great post. Thank Dwayne!

Duhhhh... Obviously not.

I leave my boots at work. Having two pairs is easier for me and isn't more expensive in the long run.

Use what the manufacturer recommends. I’m not putting beeswax, obenaufs, sno seal etc on my Parwanger leather for example. The manufacturer will have a recommendation, use it.

I use Dr. Naylor's Udder Balm, it is dual purpose! Sno-Seal on my low hanging roids is bothersome!

I have tried everything to waterproof my boots over the years on all types of leather, Gortex, and expensive boots to no avail and have never been able to keep my feet truly dry.

I finally gave up and have been wearing Felt Lined Rubber boots for years now and have never had wet or cold feet since.

Warm and Dry Feet is essential in all hunting conditions for an enjoyable hunting experience and you guys know what I mean!

Cheers ~

A big part is stopping sweat. I regularly spray my feet with antiperspirant. It makes a huge difference.

Neat trick, thanks for sharing!

YOU are the one that allowed your party's boots to fail as a ""guide"". You wouldn't be here bragging your nonsense if you or someone succumbed.

I wouldn't trust you being behind me watching on a firing line.

You are plenty deep, you can stop digging! What a joke!

I noticed a big difference in keeping my feet dry when a polypropylene sock is used under a merino wool sock.

To do the wax treatment, am I correct in assuming you do it after breaking the boots in and not when they're brand new?

Pecard shoe and boot oil waterproofing. Works for me on the leather boots that I have.



"Used on all smooth or textured smooth Oil-tanned, Vegetable, & Chrome tanned leather
Contains neutral colored pH-Balanced oil that waterproofs and conditions
Restores dried-out leather to its natural softness and flexibility
Darkens lighter colored leather"

Negative, boots can be waxed immediately, before break-in. Break-in is easier in warm weather, but it can be done at any temp. They will be a bit stiffer after waxing.

Waxing after "treating" with another solvent-heavy sauce is going to be difficult...

On a scale of 1 to 10 in tests Picards does not earn a 5.

Nikwax has always worked well for me.

It’s water based wax that when dry is very durable.
And it doesn’t soften up the leather so your boot’s ankle support stays intact.

Water just beads up and runs off.

And yes, it’s safe to use on Gore-Tex.

Leftybolt

Talking to a couple of the best cobblers on the continent they would say the same thing.

This. Warm the boots gently with a hair dryer and rub it on.....

In my horrible opinion....

Beeswax smokes everything by a lot.

Liquid beeswax is impressively flammable.

I can ruin good boots quickly with a heat gun.

Obenaufs is pretty good stuff if you don't mind reapplying often. For many folks, sheep season is 10 days max per year and then they switch to other boots. So basically they grease boots annually and that's fine. I have used Obenaufs quite a bit and mostly like it. I really like that it isn't a half day project with a 40% chance of house fire to apply.

Some folks have run boots way harder than that. It's a different discussion than work boots. It pays to listen to those folks, but in life learning is optional.

If you want to be right 93% of the time, watch where the sherrif goes and set your course 180 degrees from that.

Rubber rands often take the abuse that wax once was prized for.

Sno seal darkens leather and keeps it from drying out, but otherwise has little effect. Even in that very limited application, I'd rather have straight bear grease.

It takes a pretty warm day to break in waxed boots. You don't want to be breaking them in on a hunt.

The synthetics can be excellent or horrible. I dont trust nikwax much on leather, but I like their products in general.

Waxed gloves are great in theory, but they are so stiff they are generally useless in reality.

I usually just use a hair dryer to warm the boot and melt the wax. It takes longer but the house does not burn down. When melting wax I use a very small crackpot to melt the wax. No open flame and after I am done I add mineral oil to the wax to make cutting board finish. This makes cleanup easy on the little crockpot.

Waxed leather gloves are fantastic if you break them in during summer.

I do the same with a heat gun. I heat the leather to touch, not crazy hot, and then melt the wax in a large coffee can. Slather on the wax and use the heat gun to drive in the wax. Not crazy hot. Repeat till the leather stops absorbing the wax. Leave the wax in the coffee can until next time.

Safety should be a serious consideration... in large part that is why there are so many concoctions out there to accomplish a simple task... and none are as good as the difficult approach.

Straight beeswax cajoled with a hairdryer into a pair of Alico Guide mountain boots lasted four straight years of glacier sheep hunts. Rubber rands take a beating there...the rocks just slide over the wax.

There's a lot more oil and solvent in the normal treatments than meets the eye. Takes a lot to get beeswax to flow at finger rub temperature.

Warm them up with a hair dryer and rub in mink oil!

Alaskan guide that I've used for 8 trips recommends a big jar of Vaseline - just for your boots. All else is way too expensive.

Hint:
The Vaseline wasn't for your boots...

Exactly! And extremely easy to see when sitting on top of the mountain.

Impossible to get if you are Skane playing keyboard know-it-all.

This is from Danner's website. Here's the link to their boot care FAQ's: DANNER Note that they say to avoid mink oil and beeswax on Gore-tex type liners.

Same here. Then an annual retreatment. Has always worked great. It works well on horse tack and other leather items.

For many years Danners were and remain my favorite boot. For over 30 years beeswax has been the only thing I have used on them. They now last virtually forever, maybe Danner has an ulterior motive?

I’m convinced to try pure beeswax on my boots now. Is there a problem if they’ve already been treated with Obenaufs or similar?

There is a problem applying beeswax over Obenauf's. Because there is a bunch of solvents in there which will wick to the surface when you heat the leather. The beeswax will not soak in as well and it will be contaminated by the solvents. The treatments will not be as effective in the early going and will probably require coats sooner than if starting with fresh leather. But it will eventually get the junk out.

Obenaufs LP contains no solvents. At least according to them, or the MSDS.

Alright I’ll give it a try next time I treat boots. Looks like you, Okanagan and BC30cal all have positive experiences with it. Thanks.

Snow seal on any leather. Silicone spray on nylon, although it doesn't adhere well for me on any boots.

CWH2 is a mighty serious animal... he has also seen the light.

Funny, the MSDS calls all of that info proprietary. Here is a clip from wiki:

A solvent (s) (from the Latin solvō, "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for polar molecules and the most common solvent used by living things; all the ions and proteins in a cell are dissolved in water within the cell.

Now tell me again how you arrived at the notion there are no solvents there.