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In article ,
Dave West wrote:

Want to really waterproof my new leather boots. I have heard that dubbin
will rot leather and can soften it too much, and even ordinary shoe polish
with its 'spirit' content will dry out leather and do it no favours.

I do have a tube of silicon grease would. Would that be a good idea or
might
it also damage the leather? Grateful for suggestions.

Dubbin works fine - shoe polish is just that, and doesn't help much
with waterproofing. I don't find Nikwax any better than dubbin,
and wouldn't use silcone grease.

But it depends on what you mean by "really waterproof" - at most,
you can waterproof them for two days' of use, they will start to
leak on the third day and get worse thereafter. If you can dry
boots out overnight and treat them in the morning, fine, but that's
impossible on multi-day trips. I know of no solution for such use,
based on leather boots or otherwise - and nor do the army!
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
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I saw a documentary on the falklands conflict the other day and it said the
army had trouble with trench foot (from having wet feet) over that long walk
they had to do there.

It did make me wonder why they dont go for those all rubber lace up boots,
which are fine for the colder locations. (i did have a pair once, came from
malaysia).