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

My brother has trekked over through of the most demanding areas; the Himalyas in Nepal, the glacier fields of Pakistan, and the
Andes of South America. There aren't tourist hikes, but treks of anywhere from three to six weeks in duration. Depending on elevations at the moment he would encounter dry heat, rain, or heavy snows. He, and other experienced trekkers, use Nikwax, as they feel it offers the best combination of protection and breathability.

Good enough for my in my much more limited applications.

Any more finding a pair of boots that's designed to be used with Bees Wax or obenaufs is the biggest of your problems,which is why Nikwax is so popular. Meindl has one pair of boots that you can use bees wax on.Save for their pacs and a couple tactical boots Kenetrek has no boots designed for bees wax and neither does Lowa.

The rand on a real pair of boots handles 90% of what bees wax used to and nubuck requires something other then bees wax.

Just got a brand new pair of Meindl Perfekt Hunters. I am following this thread to maybe pick up some good info. I used Obenhaufs LP on my last pair and it worked well. I may just stick with it unless I learn something new. I like the bees wax idea but these boots have gore tex in them so I am gathering that probably is not the best idea?

The good folks at Kenetrek instructed me to use their Kenetrek Boot Wax, which is made with beeswax, on their Mountain Extreme boots. They specifically recommended their beeswax mix because of the rand. They also market this beeswax mix to be used on all their leather boots.

Best

i just buy boots with Goretex in them and do not worry about coatings.

But do you know what it consists of? I know I'm over thinking this, but it's more research of interest at this point.



Inadequate. Every pair I have leaks and that does not take the upkeep of the leather into consideration. The boots that I am buying do not have a Goretex liner nor the option of it.

Huberd's Shoe Grease is what I use on my leather Danners, and it has pine tar and beeswax as the primary ingredients.

http://www.huberds.com/

I was surprised that more people didn't mention Nikwax in this thread. Since a fellow member turned me onto it, I don't use anything else. It sheds water like a fresh coat of wax on a car hood.

Some experience with Herman Survivors, Reichle and Timberland boots from Philmont to winter visits to Table Rock, NC over the last 30 years. Sno-seal does the job on leather boots for little $$. Frequent reapplications though, I don't expect it to last for years. Warm boots in oven. Mrs. don't like that....

Nikwax waterproofing wax for leather is a de-aromatised mix of petroleum distillates and paraffin wax from petroleum crude. Kenetrek recommends the beeswax mix because a petroleum based dressing may delaminate the glue bond on the Mountain Boots.

I find that recommendation interesting as when I bought my boots from them about 3-4yrs ago their recommendation was for Nikwax (waterproofer & cleaner) which they shipped to me with the boots. Wonder if their glue has changed or if they are just making more money selling a similar product?

Not only that a lot of what I'm reading says Nikwax is water based, which could be good or bad...

I bought a block the size of a smaller tacklebox that must weigh 5 lbs, 4 or 5 years ago for about $5 from a beekeeper. I don't think beeswax goes bad.

Why I like the beeswax over some of the other products is that in addition to helping leather boots be waterproof; it seems to help the leather last longer and it stays on longer than the any other product I've used.

Will it buff out to a pretty high shine???

I don't know, never tried, just left it on thick.

No, beeswax is too soft to buff up much.

None of the mentioned commercial products last as long as beeswax, or even close. Beeswaxed boots resist abrasion better than anything I have tried and by a huge margin, again. I have not worn out a boot leather since I started waxing them. I have worn out lots of soles and have resoled waxed boots several times. I have boots that cannot be resoled but the uppers are just fine and the soles are gone.

The additional fact that watersoaked leather boots provide no foot or ankle support makes serious waterproofing really important to me and beeswax is the only thing I have found that truly does it.

I was told they had problems with delaminated glue bonds on customer boots so they now recommend using the beeswax stuff. The Nikwax contains up to 75% hazardous ingredients made up of petroleum distillates and petroleum wax biproducts from crude. There's not much room left over for water, so whatever water filler they use is very little. Different forms of petroleum mixed with wax work well at waterproofing many things, but I think one needs to consider it's effect on any materials that rely on a glue bond within its construction.

Best

Which is why I'm looking at the Skidmores and Renaissance wax. Even Montana Pitch Blend has weasel grease in it.

Either we differently define shine or you didn't hold your mouth right, because I got it to shine almost as well as Kiwi. Havn't tried with the water proofing past.
Oh and I've decided on Skidmore's. this stuff seems great, they have a pine scent to them, leads me to believe they have some pine pitch like the Montana blend. But I got the water proofer and a cake of pure bees wax and she sent me a trial of the leather cream. Works great on belts and one belt I polished on top of the cream. I recommend them highly. Especially since it's a family owned company, when you call Susan answers, you're talking directly to the horses mouth :p

OH! and my Kitchen Aid oven has a 100 degree bread proofing setting on it. Perfect for boot warming.

Kind of like great grandpas ax. On it's fifth handle and third head, but he sure loved that ax.