Boot waterproofer

[hex0rz]

Alright, so I started the arguous journey of trying to find the right waterproofer for my leather boots. Its been a while now, and I'm not sure if I found the trick.I've tried a couple commercially available products such as kiwi dry and silicon-guard. Applying them per instruction, they fail to repel water adequately, IMO.So, I decided to pursue a more "natural" method to achieving this. I recently was able to acquire tallow from 4 deer carcasses. I rendered out the fat and yielded a quart. It was not perfect, so it has a smell to it, but I can tolerate it.Being what kind of man my father in law is, he told me it would not work. As he said that it would rot out the leather on my boots. :banghead: I have not yet tried the tallow on my boots to see if it works, but my co-worker told me he bought some bear fat for his boots and it works great. I have been unable to either kill myself a bear nor acquire any fat, so its outta my reach, for now.So my father in law says he used to use beeswax and mineral oil. I got me a pint of it made up right now, trying to experiment with the ratio of wax to oil.Anyone done any of this themselves?

[flagmanruss]

I have done this on my reenacting mocassins & boots. Yes, the old school is tallow, grease of several variations, wax. It "helps" but there's nothing what I've found that will go for weeks. Modern leathers are much more waterproof as manufactured. I generally use a commercial grease/wax mix which must be applied warm, rubbed in & allowed to dry. It also makes good patch lube. When I was a greenhorn, I made friends with a Cherokee couple. I was frustrated by my wet feet & I asked the gentleman how to keep my mocassins dry. He said sure. He would show me how to keep my mocassins dry. In one fluid motion he bent over, grabbed a mocassin off his foor & stuffed it under his war shirt, where it would certainly stay dry. Period writing describe mocassins as a decent way of going barefoot.

[JAG1]

I've been using something called 'Snow Country'. Seems pretty good. The guys at the lumber yard spray their boots each morning with Thompson's water seal. They say that works good. It's a silicone base product.

[Mopar1973Man]

Might try over at www.tractorfarmandfamily.com and see if the group over there has any ideas for ya.

[Wild and Free]

I have used Redwing mink oil for years and if one applies it on a regular basis does keep things in nice shape.The key to any leather treatment is one has to religiously keep up on it to do any good long term especially if wanting them to be what I would call " Water repellant or resistant" rather than water proof, water proof leather is from my experience nothing but a selling point.

[dorkweed]

I've had real good luck with "Sno-Seal" over the years. It's got bee's wax in it.I warm the leather over a stove burning until fairly warm and apply the stuff with my fingers and rub it in. You can see the warmed leather absorbing the stuff. Do the whole boot. Repeat any areas missed and double up on the areas below your ankles as that part of the boots gets the wettest the mostest oftenest!!

[hex0rz]

Thanks for the response guys. I have heard of the sno-seal before and once again happened upon it again doing a little more research last night. I pretty much assumed that multiple and occassional application is always going to be necessary.I yielded myself a quart of beeswax/oil last night after making it. I spent $7.50 on .5lb of local beeswax and a quart of mineral oil. Pretty cheap to make and tried applying some last night. Looks like its gonna do a great job. I had to add alot of mineral oil to the wax, though. Looks like it helped make it more "flexible".What is always so amazing to me, is that bees are such a useful creature. The concoction I made last night can serve me more than just a purpose in waterproofing... Bees are awesome! ..now, what to do with this stinky tallow. I thought about putting a wick in it and just making it an emergency candle.

[hex0rz]

Alright, guys! So the results are partially in! Got that beeswax oil combo made up and slathered my boots with it. Took a heat gun and warmed them up. Once the compound got to the melting point, the leather sucked it up. Once it cooled, they are WATERPROOF! :hyper:I sprayed some water on them and they never sucked up a single drop! Except, the only drawback is that now my foot sweat soaks the inside. But a good bootdryer will solve that problem after a long days work...Still have yet to try that tallow...