Here are my Rusts from Crane's after about a week and a half. This was taken indoors next to a huge open window. Still relatively new but the soles are forming to my feet and the color is seriously beautiful in person.
Like I've mentioned above, a liberal application of Lexol conditioner, two liberal coats of Obenauf's LP and good amount of brushing. They leather still had a bit of tackiness and stickiness from the LP that's just now wearing off. I brush them regularly after wearing them minus the past two days and use shoe trees every night.
First day wearing them I got a little nick in the leather which you can kind of see on my left toe box. That was a bummer but then after wearing them the next day, I realized, they're boots damnit, they're not going to stay perfect. You'll also notice the significantly darker spot on the inside of the left toe box. Don't know where that's from, but regardless, I like it. And I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but the inside of the right boot has some very faint lightened stripes in the leather. I'm just assuming that's tied to the leather used on that boot. Not a big deal to me, but may bother some of you guys.
The ONLY thing that is a little annoying is the right boot's lace hole alignment. You can see that the right side of the laces is just slightly lower than the left side. Traditionally, I feel like they should line up evenly or the outside should be just slightly higher than the inside. This makes the top a little uneven, but no one ever sees it and it doesn't really affect how they feel on my feet and ankles. More of just a cosmetic thing at this point when I look down.
Like I said, these would really bother me if I got dress shoes/boots. But my goal is to get some great, worn in, beat to shit boots I can wear for the rest of my life. Bring on the battlescars.
