IHWE-MRLOU-BLK - Wesco® - 10" Horsehide Pull-On "Mister Lou" Engineer Boot - Black
-
@Ross thank you for the excellent response my man. I will need to bookmark this or even print it out to stash it somewhere when I inevitably forget this and need to read it again. I appreciate you taking the time to wind and ramble it all out, so to speak!
I am happy you are for the Obenauf's, as I happen to have a decent sized amount at home with one of those wire/cotton ball applicator doohickies. I will take photos before and after (and post them here this weekend) as my Lous look even dryer in person than they do in the photos. I think my trip to Iceland and England did a number on them, plus wearing them with no care subsequently and lately.
I will also look into some kiwi boot polish and see how to apply that afterwards....that would be a first for me. At this point the boots are nearing 1000 days old from when they arrived so it would make sense more now than ever.
Thanks again and I hope you have a good day today and weekend.
-
@Oaktavia Pro tip: since your boots are very dry, apply one coat and allow it to sink in and dry completely, then apply another coat. Most likely this will take a course of a few days.
Only when the boots look wet and can wipe away excess conditioner, should you think about applying the shoe polish.
This may take you 4-5 days depending on just how dry they are.
-
FWIW, I'd use cream rather than polish. Coloured if you want to get the boots back to black, non coloured if you want to keep the patina. I swear by Saphir. it will condition them too,
-
As to kiwi boot polish, look for a neutral if you want the boots to show the patina of wear and tear. Black if you want to re darken them, or parade black for a mirror finish.
Just so you know that the mirror finish is a ton of work with multiple thin layers applied and buffed. The down side is that the leather doesn’t breathe as well.
-
I definitely want to keep the faded to brown and patina look with these, that took a lot of walking around to achieve. I will go for neutral finish or might use the Saphir cream again, which I used last time. I'll focus on the conditioning this weekend and go from there. @Ross I will nudge you when the boots are ready for the next step. Tomorrow is boot day.
-
@Tago-Mago The best thing for me ever, was when I was able to afford Cordovan Leather as it makes the mirror shine so much easier. Starting out with good leather is so much nicer than my military issued boots.
