Boot Care Tips

How should I care for my boots?

Periodically clean, polish, and condition your boots. With proper care, you can add years to the life of your boots while retaining their original good looks. Without the natural occurring lubricants and protectants of living skin, it's essential to keep leather clean and to add waterproofing conditioners to maintain it.

Use a non-abrasive pencil eraser to remove scuff marks. Clean the welt (the stitching area between top of the boot and sole) and seams with an old toothbrush. A stiff non-metallic brush, sponge, and a little bit of plain water will reasonably clean your boots.

If they need a more thorough cleaning, remove the worst of dirt or mud using the brush first, then a slightly wet sponge to remove the remaining dirt (Water in small amounts will not hurt leather).

When necessary, use saddle soap and water for a better cleaning. Be sure to rinse away all of the saddle soap. Residual saddle soap will damage leather, just as dried soap left on your skin will damage and cause excessive drying. Never use a detergent--it destroys the natural oils. Always use a proper leather saddle soap for cleaning.

While the leather is still slightly moist after a good cleaning, apply a leather conditioner to replace the leather's natural oils. We recommend Lexol conditioner or any good quality conditioner containing lanolin. Set your clean and treated boots aside for 24 hours to dry. It's always a good idea to use shoe trees so that your boots maintain their shape. Later, apply boot polish or wax, and buff to a shine.

What should i do if my boots get wet?

The first thing to consider is that boots should be waxed or oiled so that they tend to repel water. The less water absorbed by leather, the longer it will last and the more comfortable you'll be. Wet leather will stretch and weaken, shrinking and becoming brittle as it dries. Once your boots are wet, however, they should be dried as soon as possible with room temperature, dry air (Between 70-95 degrees Fahrenheit or 20-35 degrees Centigrade). If you're in a situation where you can't properly dry your boots, wear them in a dry area until they can dry out a bit before you take them off.

It's important to avoid drying them near a fire or heater. This overheating will literally cook the leather and cause it to become stiff and brittle. The best technique is to ensure that dry, room temperature air can circulate inside the boots.

If you let the boots sit in a wet condition for days without drying out, they can become moldy. This isn't good for the boot, and mold or mildew is nearly impossible to get rid of.

How should I take care of my boots that have an oily type leather
(as found on WESCO boots and most construction type boots)?

Use a product like Huberd's Shoe Grease or Bee Oil.

I have a pair of boots that are very dry and the leather is cracking. Is there any treatment to restore them?

Clean & re-dye them. Use grease or oil to help restore the leather.

The perfect spit shine

Getting a pair of boots to shine is a fairly straightforward procedure that most of us learned when we were children. Doing a spit shine is a step above that. There are various ways to accomplish it, and much military lore ranging from cotton balls and hot spoons (both of which work) to pyrotechnics (not recommended!). Here are the guidelines we follow:

Wash your hands. Your skin contains natural oils in addition to whatever dirt you may have picked up. You cannot polish a boot that has oil on it, nor can you polish a boot with oil on your skin.

Step 1:

Clean the boots. For a new or relatively clean pair, all you will need to do is put a small amount of saddle soap on a soft shoe polish dauber, dip it in water, and lightly scrub the boots. The saddle soap will foam a bit. Then wipe off the soapy water and dry the boots with a clean towel. If the boots are really dirty, more drastic measures, such as a scrubbing brush and water, may be required. Don't forget the dust in the tongue of the boot!

Step 2:

If the boots already have old layers of polish on them, strip the old polish off using mineral spirits on a clean rag. Lighter fluid will also work, but is more expensive. You will find mineral spirits in the paint thinner section of your hardware store. If you are buying something labeled "paint thinner", read the label to make sure it is indeed mineral spirits. Provided it is mineral spirits, the cheap stuff works just as well as the major brand names.

Step 3:

Using your bare hands, rub a layer of soft shoe polish onto one boot. We use Angelus Polish, but find that regular Kiwi shoe polish works just as well. Buy the big tins, as you will use more of this than any other supply. Remember to apply polish to the tongue of the boot, and also to the edge of the sole and heel. Use a toothbrush to apply polish to the "catwalk" where the sole meets the upper shoe leather.

Step 4:

Now here comes the technology: After you have applied the polish to the boot, take a hair dryer using the hot setting, and slowly blast hot air over the boot. You will see the polish melt briefly as the hot air does its thing. This melts the polish into the leather.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other boot.

Repeat steps 3 through 4 three more times, so that you have melted four layers of soft polish into the leather.

Now comes the spit shine.To do this you need the following 3 items:

1. A very high quality polish such as Kiwi Parade Gloss or Lincoln Stain Wax.
   (The latter is marked USMC approved.)
2. A damp 100% cotton cloth, cut into a square the size of a handkerchief. This should be old - an old T-shirt is ideal. If it is not old, run it through the laundry a few times till it is nice and soft before using it. It must be 100% cotton. Polyester will strip off the polish, which is the last thing you want at this stage.
3. Clean water to keep the cloth damp. A spray bottle works really well.

Step 5:

Wet the cloth and wring it out - you want it damp but not dripping wet. Wrap it round the first two fingers of your hand and grip the excess cloth so that you have a nice taut surface at your fingertips. Put a small amount of polish on the cloth at your fingertips and begin lightly stroking the surface of the leather in little circles, working a section at a time. You have to be patient. At first you will think a shine will never appear, but keep doing those little circles on the section you are working on. Eventually you will see a mirror shine begin to appear through the haze of polish. (Don't forget to do this to the edges of the soles and heels too.)

This process takes a bit of practice. In time you will develop the technique that works best for you. You will also find by experimenting that variations on the little circles, such as back and forth buffing with the damp cloth, work better on certain areas of the particular boot you are shining. Turn the cloth to get a clean surface occasionally.

On some boots, a single layer of spit shine is all that is needed. On others, such as Canadian Garrison boots which come with a slightly pebbled surface when new, you may need to build up many layers. Use polish sparingly - the layers must be thin, or else the polish you just applied will strip off and form little bits of grit in the cloth, ruining the shine you have so far. Keep the cloth damp using your spray bottle or whatever. The purpose of the water is to make the polish stick to the leather not to the cloth. It is the thin layers of polish that gradually fill the tiny holes and bumps in the leather, thereby producing the smooth surface that shines like a mirror.

When you have finished the spit shine, make sure you rub all traces of polish off the soles with an old towel or something. This is especially important with boots that have heavy treads such as Vibram soles.

Ongoing Maintenance

Maintaining the shine is much easier than the procedure just outlined. Provided you have no major scuffs, all you really need to do is add another layer or two of spit shine polish with your damp cotton cloth.

If you have a large scratch, you can dip your finger in mineral spirits and melt the polish in the scratched area., then rebuild the layers. Personally, we find it easier to strip the polish off a somewhat larger area (typically the toe cap), and then redo the entire process described above on that area (giving new meaning to starting from scratch).

There usually comes a time, when the old polish is chipped, flaking off in places, and/or has major scratches, that your only option is to strip the polish off the entire pair of boots and start afresh. US military tradition requires the old polish to be stripped on a regular basis. Canadian and British tradition is to build up layers of polish over the years. Choose your tradition!

"The Perfect Spit Shine"
© 1999 ian turner All Rights Reserved
(Thank you Ian)