Preserving footware

[Mortblanc]

What did the pioneers of yesteryear do?

They used what they had to treat their footwear. In most cases that was plain old hog lard rubbed into the leather.

My preferred mixture involves beef tallow and beeswax at a 50/50 ratio.

All of is stinks and all of it attracts vermin to your foot wear. Any and every critter will be chewing up your shoes. None are very effective and the pioneers suffered with rheumatism and all other forms of wet and cold induced long term ailments. Many of the pensions for disabling military duty were based on foot ailments due to cold weather service.

The real problem is that all forms of "dubbin" both ancient and modern, only work to a very limited extent. If you are in constant wet your feet are going to soak up enough water to flood your footwear eventually, and that eventually will not usually be very long.

For that reason most professionals and locals in wet areas have decided to skip the leather, skip the treatments that do not work, and go straight to a good quality neoprene footwear with varying amounts of insulation based on the local needs. You will find that farmers world wide have done the same thing for their muck boot needs. Soon after WW1 the militaries of the world did the same thing for wet weather/cold weather service.

I have a pair of low neoprene boots and a pair of knee highs. I also have three pair of "canoe boots", one for each vehicle and one for the house. I do not own a pair of "Mickey Mouse boots" that are good down to -70f, but I should probably pick up a pair, they are not very expensive.

I do have the normal hiking boots but they are for fair weather use.

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http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/31179?pro...8597243377

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http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/sw...x?a=467770

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunny_boots