Shoes that look better with age...

[garden gnomes in space]

finally pulled the trigger on a pair of white's. cannot believe it took me so long to get a pair.

opted for the 6" bounty hunter over semidress since my aldens already function as "semidress" shoes.

Nice. I went with an 8" bounty hunter/smokejumper. The wait is almost too much

[garden gnomes in space]

I finally got around to treating my 1.5 year old RW 3141's with Obenauf's. They cleaned up nicely. They were looking a bit ragged prior to treatment. I mentioned previously that I had the original sole replaced because an escalator chewed up the crepe sole. I had Vibram 2021 slapped on instead of the OEM rubber/crepe Euro traction sole.

[arahat]

Incidentally I'm selling apair of BNWT Cat's Paw Chino's in size 36.

http://supertalk.superfuture.com/index.php?/topic/135074-sugar-cane-cats-paw-burgus-plus-and-imperial-selvage-denim/page__p__2721782#entry2721782

[hollowsleather]

That button design and pocket flasher are genius.

[erk]

Still totally love my white's. I'm just a little concerned about how much time I've got left on the right leather sole. I dont know what it is, but I seem to really drag my toe on the right boot. Guess I should have gotten toe taps.

[jstavrin]

How long have you had them? That doesn't look like anything to be worried about.

And which leather is that?

[fre-co]

Get toe taps now and they will last forever.

[erk]

I've had them since feb 6th, if I remember correctly. they're the brown cxl

@ fresco: I think I might do that. only problem is the only cobbler in greenville is a total hack. So i'll have to take them to raleigh and be without them for a while. I'll take care of it when the north carolina summer heat forces me to stop wearing boots.

[knucks]

seems like you have plenty of time left, but yeah get toe taps if concerned

[fre-co]

Any cobbler should be able to manage it if you just want them nailed on. You can do them yourself if you get a selection of sizes and choose the best one.

[happinessknox]

yeah, they can also do it while you wait. takes a couple of minutes.

[wgmds]

i know that this has probably been asked before, but what's the deal with chromexcel upkeep? shining, polishing, treating, all that good stuff. thanks! and your white's look great, erk! i'll post mine with about 1 month of wear in the coming days probably.

[erk]

i know that this has probably been asked before, but what's the deal with chromexcel upkeep? shining, polishing, treating, all that good stuff. thanks! and your white's look great, erk! i'll post mine with about 1 month of wear in the coming days probably.

thanks man.

it seems the internet world is kind of vague on upkeep of chromexcel leather. What I've found is Obenauf's works really well. Even for areas where color has been removed because of scuffs and what not. My friend has a pair of alden chromexcel 405s on the modified last that he had polished at a train station in DC. They were super shiny and still look good a couple months later. So I'm thinking its really not that big of a deal how you treat them. but you can get a pretty good low shine with just obenauf's and a brush.

[PeterParker]

Neatsfoot oil is Horween's recommendation, although there are many products that will help maintain chromexcel. Montana's Pitch Blend leather dressing seems to be another popular product.

Check out the suggestions in the comments section on the Horween blog post about chromexcel.

Edited April 4, 2012 by PeterParker

[CrashTestBrummie]

neatsfoot oil is great stuff, but it has to be pure.

and, like all other heavy-duty leather conditioning agents, needs to be used very sparingly, and very occasionally...

[devilish]

I have the Alden x Context Roy's and a pair of Redwings in chromexcel and i've just used a little obenauf's and some shoe cream on them. a little of both and some elbow grease.

Edited April 4, 2012 by devilish

[CrashTestBrummie]

i used neatsfoot yesterday, with a little dubbin, to darken the eatons and get a better contrast with the welt:

[fre-co]

And neatsfoot smells like the beast it came from..... Beware though, it can have quite dramatic darkening effects on certain leathers.

edit: the cheapest source (in the uk) is from farm stores or country stores that sell horse riding related stuff. You can get a whacking great can for a fiver odd rather than paying over the odds from some internet shoe fetishist shop.

As ctb says though, make sure it says pure neatsfoot oil.

Edited April 4, 2012 by fre-co

[dkatz]

Finally admitting that the vintage shell cordovan long-wings I picked up just don't fit. In the supermarket.

[SetsunaFSeiei]

i have yet to see single soled white`s with taps on. wonder if this is an option bakers can make

[NewStandard]

Neatsfoot oil is Horween's recommendation, although there are many products that will help maintain chromexcel. Montana's Pitch Blend leather dressing seems to be another popular product.

Check out the suggestions in the comments section on the Horween blog post about chromexcel.

Venetian shoe cream also works good on CXL

[merzbot]

quick smudge after greasing the scotch grain espresso stows and alico summit boots.

[CrashTestBrummie]

are they scotch grain, or espresso burnished calf? either way, i'm really impressed with the build of my espresso stows and the leather in particular, it seems to be one that will get better and better with time...

[merzbot]

they're indeed scotch grain (these ones - http://www.oipolloi.com/trickers-stow-brogue-boot--espresso-scotch-grain-1) but after some time the grain around the front of the boot has really smoothed out.

do you use the trickers polish with yours? what shade if so?

i quite like the reddish colour coming out on the burnished pair you posted a couple pages back.

[CrashTestBrummie]

they're indeed scotch grain (these ones - http://www.oipolloi....-scotch-grain-1) but after some time the grain around the front of the boot has really smoothed out.

do you use the trickers polish with yours? what shade if so?

i quite like the reddish colour coming out on the burnished pair you posted a couple pages back.

ha, i was looking at the oi polloi ones literally five minutes ago, after i got their mid-season sale email! yours really have smoothed out, i like it a lot.

haven't really thought about polish for the stows yet - i know richard shoehealer reckons that kiwi's 'dark tan' works well with the espresso leathers (which he rates amongst tricker's best).

the skipton boots posted a few pages ago had been bulled a lot with black polish, which looked good with the broken-in burgundy tones of the zug coming through.

i bulled them myself last week but with dark brown polish and am thinking of stripping them down entirely this weekend - i take back what i said a few pages ago about older zug cracking on the surface, as it's the cracking of the polish build-up that makes it look as if the leather has cracked and not the leather itself.

[riff]

I posted these on my tumblr a while back & realized I forgot to post here - my current workboot rotation:

[garden gnomes in space]

^^Thats a bad ass rotation. I dig them all, but I really like the color of the RW. Is that their sage color?

[riff]

Thanks bro! Yeah, RW calls it "sage", it's a grey tone, very nice color.

[fre-co]

Thats a lot of crepe....

Good stuff

[knucks]

you definitely like that crepe..