Custom White's Boots ... Thoughts?

[Legal Eagles]

Well at least I beat fire season! I wonder if I will have them in time for summer travel.

Let me (or us) know when the BHs ship.

Just got the e-mail... Bounty Hunters ordered 3/12 shipped today... Oregon to Maine... expected delivery 5/2.

Hope it helps!

 

[ThreeLions]

OK, Leather vs. Rubber Soles... My opinion only:

First a little explanation about my situation... I live in Maine, so our seasons are: Winter, Mud, Short Summer, Fall.

I work in an office environment, and will not be using these boots "hard".

I have White's boots with single leather soles, as well as White's with almost every type of rubber sole available. (Short aside on rubber - if you want an uninterrupted heel stack, the new TPU commando rubber is AWESOME... wears like iron and will not mark floors. For Vibram offerings beware the logger sole... it may be great for logging, but in the cold it hardens up and loses its grip and becomes super slick... my favourite Vibram is the 269 Western... plenty durable and the rubber in the heel stack is thinner... but this is about leather, not rubber... now if White's offered cord or neocork soles we would be having another discussion altogether!)

Anyhow... back on track... immutable facts about leather soles:

1) The leather soles White's uses are thicker and better than the leather soles on any of my dress shoes... more "bootish".

2) I never, never, wear any leather sole when it is raining or the ground is wet. In my experience leather wears 2-3x as fast when wet. If the ground is wet, I wear a rubber bottom pair of boots.

3) Leather soles are slippery in winter. Nothing you can do about this, it is just a fact of life... none of my leather soled boots or shoes get worn outside between December and March.

4) You will feel the ground more with leather than rubber, you will feel rocks, and if the ground is cold and you are standing on it, your feet will get cold faster. I don't stand outside in the cold in leather soled boots - see my comments about December-March above - so this is not an issue for me.

I like the look of single leather the best, it is classic and dressy and as sleek as a White's boot gets. Unfortunately being a big guy and walking on asphalt, I tend to wear down the single leather sole fairly quickly. I went with the double leather for greater longevity while still trying to keep a somewhat classic look.

As far as a three season functional shoe, if you can tolerate the shorter life leather is perfectly functional and makes a delightful and surprisingly gratifying crunch when walking on gravel. If I were using these for workboots or outside a lot I would not choose leather, but for keyboard commandos like myself wanting a classic look (no rubber layer to break up the heel stack), single leather is fine, double leather is better... and not that much more bulky in look or feel. I am glad I went that route.

As far as comfort and "ground slap", leather is "harder" than rubber, and with is single leather you do feel it, but it is not unpleasant... with a double leather, especially two layers of what White's uses, I cannot feel the difference although I can hear it.

One final trick... I learned this from an old-school cobbler... YMMV but it works for me. Once you have worn your leather soles for a month or so and worn completely through the surface layer, get some boiled linseed oil from home depot and put enough into two paper plates to just cover the bottom of the plate. Set the plates on a flat surface and set the bottom ball area of each boot onto the plate with the heel of the boot resting on the flat surface outside the plate. Adjust the height of the heel so that as much of the ball area is touching the linseed oil as possible. Leave it there overnight. The leather sole will soak up the linseed oil. Wipe off any excess linseed oil and put the boots away to dry for 72 hours with the soles exposed if you can... a Peet Boot Dryer works great for that... in that 72 hours the linseed oil will cure and crosslink and make the leather sole hard. The first time you wear them after the linseed oil treatment they will be slick so be careful, but after that, they will wear like iron. The above works for me, use at your own risk, but boiled linseed oil is much cheaper than some sole oils sole especially marketed for shoes. If you don't like the idea of leaving your boots soaking in oil, you can use a paintbrush to paint the linseed oil on the soles... it works too... just give it 2-3 good coats and let each coat soak in before applying the next.

TL/DR: Unless you are wearing them in the cold or wet or snow, leather soles are perfectly functional, double leather is even better and more durable. Neither is as durable as rubber, but everything is a tradeoff and IMHO leather soles look much better.

What an awesome response, thanks for taking the time to write that up. And, the tip about the BLO is fantastic.

Just one add on. If you do this, make sure you get boiled linseed oil (BLO). If you use raw linseed oil, it will never cure. Off on a tangent, modern BLO is not actually boiled, but has chemical drying agents added to it that allow the oil to polymerize and cure.

Lastly, never put a rag soaked in BLO in the trash. It will spontaneously combust, and you'll have a trashcan fire on your hands. Lay the rag out flat to cure, or put it in your wood stove and burn it.

 

[ThreeLions]

Anyone know the current wait time? Placed my order with Kyle @bakers on 4/10.

My recent pair of Smokejumpers was ordered on 03/19 and delivered on 04/10. 3 weeks, not bad!

 

[mboon85]

Interesting one of those orders took three weeks and another took seven.

 

[mboon85]

Maybe Sambam can clue me in on wait time since my high texture bullhide border is so specific

 

[Legal Eagles]

Interesting one of those orders took three weeks and another took seven.

My wife actually ordered mine as a gift... and asked they be made with Black Elk Tan and a couple other minor tweaks... plus she had one e-mail with Kyle to clarify a point. That's why it may have taken a little longer... no complaints at 7 weeks. Remember one of those weeks is shipping from Oregon to Maine. If I lived in the PNW it would be more like 6 weeks which is historically very fast for spring orders.

 

[ThreeLions]

I requested mine be made with Black Elk Tan and a couple other minor tweaks... that's why it may have taken a little longer... no complaints at 7 weeks. Remember one of those weeks is shipping from Oregon to Maine. If I lived in the PNW it would be more like 6 weeks which is historically very fast for spring orders.

UPS ground is only 1 or 2 days to my house from the factory. I also ordered directly from White's so the boots didn't have to ship to Baker's first.

 

[Legal Eagles]

UPS ground is only 1 or 2 days to my house from the factory. I also ordered directly from White's so the boots didn't have to ship to Baker's first.

Cutting out the middleman explains a lot. I wish White's website allowed the same customization options as Bakers.

 

[RickyTylerson]

Cutting out the middleman explains a lot. I wish White's website allowed the same customization options as Bakers.

you can do all the customizing on the telephone with White's. In my experience they don't send out any tracking or shipping notification so the boots just appear one day. Which is kinda cool.

 

[mboon85]

you can do all the customizing on the telephone with White's. In my experience they don't send out any tracking or shipping notification so the boots just appear one day. Which is kinda cool.

If you’re in Washington like me Whites charges sales tax. Buying from Bakers saves me sales tax plus there’s a 10% discount for first time orders. That’s 548ish compared to 450.

 

[brownies]

This was a question I tried to PM @Neognosis. Too many characters, so posted here instead. But I hugely value anyone’s input, if you have it.

Hey. I’ve been lurking on White’s forum. I’ve seen you’ve got some Oxford shoes in British Tan that you’ve got a nice shine onto. You did this with Saphirs natural polish? I was wondering if you could comment on how easy this is to do? British Tan is akin to chromexcel isn’t it - full of wax? I have read that it is difficult to polish such a leather. Is this your experience?

How do you find this leather? I’m attracted to it and other chromexcel for its depth of colour, how is appears so complex and interesting, rather than painted on monochrome of many other leathers. But I’d like to get some shine on it, as you have. Comments that CXL scuffs like crazy have me a bit nervous.

Anyway, thanks for all your inputs in the forum. And thank you in advance if you find time to reply.

 

[brownies]

If you’re in Washington like me Whites charges sales tax. Buying from Bakers saves me sales tax plus there’s a 10% discount for first time orders. That’s 548ish compared to 450.

I’m gearing up to put in an order with Bakers (thinking about leather samples to have shipped first). I’m in Australia. Can I save money on sales tax (only to pay import tax here instead) because I’m abroad? The sums we’re taking here make a big difference to me.

 

[MadM]

I’m gearing up to put in an order with Bakers (thinking about leather samples to have shipped first). I’m in Australia. Can I save money on sales tax (only to pay import tax here instead) because I’m abroad? The sums we’re taking here make a big difference to me.

I live in Norway, and have ordered a few pairs from Bakers. They tend to go easy on the customs declaration, which usually saves me close to 100$ in import tax. I don't know if White's does the same.

 

[Crit_Obs]

In many countries (like where I am), customs don't give 2 cr*ps about what's written on the parcel, since most sellers don't mark the true value. Instead, here the buyer must be able to show proof of purchase and if that's not conclusive, then the cc slips etc.

But what @brownies was asking was about US sales tax which Baker's (or any US retailers) don't charge from their international customers... So you are good to go in that sense.

 

[TH3515]

@brownies In the US, the published prices are net prices to begin with, they contain no sales tax.

@MadM you're lucky. Customs in my country (Germany) simply ignore any paperwork on the package and ask me for a proof of payment. So a 500$ pair of boots becomes a 640$ pair after import duties/tax). And short of committing some serious fraud, there's no way to circumvent it.