Too much boot wax?!

[ananix]

I wonder how long it takes for the leather on an 'over waxed' pair of boots to rot or become damaged?

I also wonder if that time period is longer then they could reasonably be expected to last under normal 'outdoor' use?

Your questions are to simple to pay any justice to the equation moist/wax/time/wear but to answer your first question just as simple.

FAST!!

And your second
Most defently I have seen a pair like my boots have servere rot damages in the exact spots, mention in this threats subject, after a year and if they are left untreated or if the person keeps on treating them as usal, it will specialy comprimise the areas around the sewings/asampling as thats the most challenging area to maintain, and in general comprimise the leather as it weakens and thins it.

Havent thrown out a lether boot for more than 10years.

 

[malley]

Sorry my post was aimed just as much to others soon to face or faces same problem as to you there for the nazi walk through, i just tried not to make it a daily issue about leatherboots for tenderfoots as it often becomes

I beleave the part in regards to your issue was much more understanding and friendly, considering your person and your problem oposit the general walk through. Ill cut down on the ! and capital letters in general so i seems as relaxed as i really am

Im happy you solved your problem but may i ask for my own understanding and knowledge, pealing wax that leaves dry spots and cracks, sounds an awfull lot like polish not wax. Can you explain further? is the wax coloured and smells other than dull??
Leather lined you say, maybe i missunderstood the issue is it on the inside or the outside you have the problem?? do you have two diffrent materials on the inside and outside?? I talked about (and only use) treating the outsides of no lining leather boots, same piece of leather on the outside as the inside.
And again did the expert say in what way it would be detrimental to their performance to over wax??

Ananix

I am grateful for your post. Your advice was relevant and helpful. Apologies if my response appeared to direct any frustrations to you. It certainly wasn't intended to. I do agree with your comments on salesmen and wax - I will bear this in mind in future. Good advice.

My boots are not rotten, just want to keep them in good condition for years to come. I have got rid of the excess, which has allowed me to ensure a clean, evenly treated pair of boots. Thats all. I have sorted the problem by applying the friendly constructive advice offered by members on here. Thank you all.

 

[johnboy]

Your questions are to simple to pay any justice to the equation moist/wax/time/wear but to answer your first question just as simple.

FAST!!

And your second
Most defently I have seen a pair like my boots have servere rot damages in the exact spots, mention in this threats subject, after a year and if they are left untreated or if the person keeps on treating them as usal, it will specialy comprimise the areas around the sewings/asampling as thats the most challenging area to maintain, and in general comprimise the leather as it weakens and thins it.

Havent thrown out a lether boot for more than 10years.

'FAST!!' eh....

One of my first pair of 'hiking' boots were a nice pair of Zamberlan Treklites. Reading Zamberlans blurb I was only supposed to treat them with Zmaberlans own product Hydrobloc cream IIRC which I dutifully did and again following the advice only use it sparingly... Which I did and after a good few weekends walking on Dartmoor of course the initial proofing on the leather of the boots wore off and I followed the sparing application approach. This resulted in Damp feet. Eventually after a series of wet foot weekends. I cracked out the Nikwax gave em a good coat which I topped up and never looked back damp feet being a thing of the past as long as the boot wasn't swamped (not easy to achieve on Dartmoor in Winter). I would have worn those boots out ( sole was poked) in about 2 years of use I suppose but then I did use them for everything.. The uppers were still in ok'ish nick.. I think the drill than as now for me was to give em a good scrub on return from a trip to clean all the mud off of them. Then let dry naturally with a bit of news paper in them to suck out the water. Then place em in the drying room to warm up for a day ( or out in the sun) then sort out the proofing.. Bog stock Nikwax, generally on the seams and stitching a coat on the overall boot and particular attention on the tounge gusset and the crease behind the toe box..

After this I converted to Yeti's and Scarpa boots.. Alp Attak and a pair of Fitzroys...

I must admit I didn't think it was possible to over wax boots if you were using them. I always thought the rate at which the proofing wore off as you used them sort of counter balanced the rate at which the proofing could degenrate the leather....

Still you live and ya learn....

 

[ananix]

'FAST!!' eh....

One of my first pair of 'hiking' boots were a nice pair of Zamberlan Treklites. Reading Zamberlans blurb I was only supposed to treat them with Zmaberlans own product Hydrobloc cream IIRC which I dutifully did and again following the advice only use it sparingly... Which I did and after a good few weekends walking on Dartmoor of course the initial proofing on the leather of the boots wore off and I followed the sparing application approach. This resulted in Damp feet. Eventually after a series of wet foot weekends. I cracked out the Nikwax gave em a good coat which I topped up and never looked back damp feet being a thing of the past as long as the boot wasn't swamped (not easy to achieve on Dartmoor in Winter). I would have worn those boots out ( sole was poked) in about 2 years of use I suppose but then I did use them for everything.. The uppers were still in ok'ish nick.. I think the drill than as now for me was to give em a good scrub on return from a trip to clean all the mud off of them. Then let dry naturally with a bit of news paper in them to suck out the water. Then place em in the drying room to warm up for a day ( or out in the sun) then sort out the proofing.. Bog stock Nikwax, generally on the seams and stitching a coat on the overall boot and particular attention on the tounge gusset and the crease behind the toe box..

After this I converted to Yeti's and Scarpa boots.. Alp Attak and a pair of Fitzroys...

I must admit I didn't think it was possible to over wax boots if you were using them. I always thought the rate at which the proofing wore off as you used them sort of counter balanced the rate at which the proofing could degenrate the leather....

Still you live and ya learn....

´
I hope i do and think you are pretty much right and i do it pretty much the same way with pretty much same expierences my soles just gets repaired and the boots sometimes storaiged but people who over wax often or get rot damages dont do and use them like that and even a scout might feel like giving them a good wash and wax down before storaige.
I also seem to understand from your posting that you asume a very wet enviroment, sometimes a minimum of wax is required for functionality and maintenance.

Besides that in this specific case considering the persons describtion wich i dont find to mach yours and considering he's own feeling i think something should be done.

 

[johnboy]

´
I also seem to understand from your posting that you asume a very wet enviroment, sometimes a minimum of wax is required for functionality and maintenance.

Yep I did assume that waxing the boot meant it was going to be used in a wet environment. Nikwax / Dubbin / Snowseal AFAIK are proofing agents to improve the water repellancy of boots.. I guess if you're waterproofing boots you expect em to get wet..

Any how I ditched the idea of slapping on Nikwax these days and just run with a light non waterproof boot that dries quickly.. teamed up with some decent wool socks this combo seems to work very well if the boot is getting immersed a lot in river crossings etc. If I was back in the UK and on upland moorland areas such as Dartmoor or North Wales / Lakes etc I'd probably run with a non goretex lined leather boot and nikwax it to keep it water resistant and use it with a pair of Yeti's...

What works well in Denmark??

 

[ananix]

Yep I did assume that waxing the boot meant it was going to be used in a wet environment. Nikwax / Dubbin / Snowseal AFAIK are proofing agents to improve the water repellancy of boots.. I guess if you're waterproofing boots you expect em to get wet.

its not about waterproffness but about maintaining leather and its proberties, yes you can add more to do so and if you then use them as wet boots it will wear off just as you described and just as i described, but if you dont you risk your leather starts to rot. Not sure where you wanna go with that and again the problem described in subject is real.

Any how I ditched the idea of slapping on Nikwax these days and just run with a light non waterproof boot that dries quickly.. teamed up with some decent wool socks this combo seems to work very well if the boot is getting immersed a lot in river crossings etc. If I was back in the UK and on upland moorland areas such as Dartmoor or North Wales / Lakes etc I'd probably run with a non goretex lined leather boot and nikwax it to keep it water resistant and use it with a pair of Yeti's...

What works well in Denmark??

Dont think you can say so but what works best for me is to give them wax when the leather needs it, i rarely waterproff my boots, i dont have lining and change and dries socks at rests. So again pretty much the same.

 

[walker]

ive had a pair of lowas for 8 years now leather lined and have used dubbing on them since new they have covered hundreds of miles both here and over seas hot and cold wet and dry never had any trouble from them leather is still in great condition but will need resoling soon i reackon so i wouldnt worry about it to much

 

[Ratbag]

I used to work in an outdoor shop and I've seen loads of boots "killed with kindness" - overtreated with leather proofing products until the leather is so soft it simply splits apart.

My suggestion would be to use Aqueous Nikwax - it is almost impossible to overtreat the leather using this stuff because it simply runs off any leather which is already adequately treated.

The other advice is to put normal boot polish on most of the time, to keep the leather in good nick, and then proof them only every so often. As leather is a natural material it is difficult to be proscriptive about how often re-proofing is necessary.

If you have Goretex-lined (or similar) boots then the leather doesn't need to be waterproof at all, just nourished to keep it in good nick, because you're not relying on the leather itself to keep the water out

HTH

Rat

 

[malley]

I used to work in an outdoor shop and I've seen loads of boots "killed with kindness" - overtreated with leather proofing products until the leather is so soft it simply splits apart.

My suggestion would be to use Aqueous Nikwax - it is almost impossible to overtreat the leather using this stuff because it simply runs off any leather which is already adequately treated.

The other advice is to put normal boot polish on most of the time, to keep the leather in good nick, and then proof them only every so often. As leather is a natural material it is difficult to be proscriptive about how often re-proofing is necessary.

If you have Goretex-lined (or similar) boots then the leather doesn't need to be waterproof at all, just nourished to keep it in good nick, because you're not relying on the leather itself to keep the water out

HTH

Rat

Cheers, Rat. Feeling much better about the question now! Thought I'd lost my mind for a while there. Yes, I'm afraid I took Meindl and the shop's advice - who both said treat withe AT LEAST 2 or 3 layers of meindl wax or similar. I used Leidergris, as reccommended by Altberg. Might go for the aqueous nikwax after this!

Many thanks for the guidance.

 

[treefrog]

I got a free tin of 'Leder Gris' wax with a pair of Altbergs, and use it on all my leather boots when they need it. Found it to be better than nikwax/Gwax and others. Can't recommend it enough.

http://www.altberg.co.uk/Web/bccare.jsp.

 

[Nonsuch]

Meths will also get the excess off

NS