Leather boots - protect/restore/revive old ones

Hi folks,

I recently found myself in need of a new set of walking boots. My last pair were lightweight fabric and had deteriorated to the point of being unwearable. I decided to go back to leather, but also work out how to care for them properly as I am now (in theory!) a responsible adult.

Youtube took me down the rabbit hole of how to properly wax walking boots where I found this. Short version, when waxing your boot use a hair drier or a hot air gun to gently warm the leather and the wax. The wax will melt and be absorbed into the pores. A brand new pair of walking boots treated this way absorbed an astonishing amount of wax. Around half a tin. After waxing they look amazing, with a deep dark glossy sheen. The water is beading off them beautifully and I'm excited to wear them for real on the hills next week.

While I had the kit out I did the same treatment on some of my old, knackered, essentially unwearable leather shoes. I've been able to bring two pairs back into service; they now look sufficiently tidy to wear in public again and have gone from being as absorbent as a sponge to being fully waterproof. I was gobsmacked. The difference is all in getting the wax to absorb into the leather, rather than sit on the surface. Obvious in hindsight.



For what it is worth, I tried both pure beeswax and also a commercial beeswax polish formulation. I think the commercial formulation worked better than pure wax - it seemed to soak in more effectively and gave more even coverage.

my first job was working at a racehorse barn as a teen, cleaning stables and cleaning tack. The farm had been active for almost 75 years, and there were stashes of equipment in dark corners. Every once in a while there would be a horse that needed a particularly weird piece of equipment or an odd size, and I'd be sent out to some dusty tack room to pick up what looked like a moldy piece of cardboard. We'd get out the oil soap and warm water and neatsfoot oil and miracles happened. Took time and kneading, but it was always a success. Leather gear that hadn't been used in decades was supple and nice again. I found some old boots that came back to life for me. It's a fabulous material and doesn't take ridiculous amounts of effort, considering. And waterproofed shoes are even better.

I usually make a leather 'balm' of beeswax & a fat of some sort (neatsfoot or boiled linseed, usually), and rub it on/in to the best of my ability, then hit it with the heat gun, to melt it all in, rinse & repeat until no more will soak in, then buff.

I use the same technique but I use pure tallow and completely saturate the boots or leather paying special attention to all seams.