darkening the leather on redwings?

[whiskeybeard]

I haven't used obenauf's, but sno-seal did darken my Iron Rangers considerably, and relatively permanently. (edit: you can also reapply every 6 months or so.)

That said, I have to agree with the person who said the color on your boots looks pretty good as is.

 

[burningbright]

Originally Posted by whiskeybeard

I haven't used obenauf's, but sno-seal did darken my Iron Rangers considerably, and relatively permanently. (edit: you can also reapply every 6 months or so.)

That said, I have to agree with the person who said the color on your boots looks pretty good as is.

I hope your Iron Rangers were the rough-out Hawthorne model and not the Amber or other colored ones. Sno-seal, at least from what I know, is used primarily for rough-out boots and does darken them but for other leather like the Ambers, you need a boot oil.

OP, if you do use the Obernauf's, post some before after pics for comparison. I'm curious to see what the difference will look like.

 

[whiskeybeard]

Weird, I'd never heard that about sno-seal before. My boots are indeed the Amber, and I used it just once but it seemed to work fine. What is the problem with using it on regular leather supposed to be? It doesn't say anything about this on the jar that I can see.

Originally Posted by burningbright

I hope your Iron Rangers were the rough-out Hawthorne model and not the Amber or other colored ones. Sno-seal, at least from what I know, is used primarily for rough-out boots and does darken them but for other leather like the Ambers, you need a boot oil. OP, if you do use the Obernauf's, post some before after pics for comparison. I'm curious to see what the difference will look like.

 

[eightdouble]

i have ordered BOTH the obernauf's leather oil and the heavy duty LP. i will take some pics and post them when this is all said and done.

my plan is to oil the boots to get that richer coloring and then use a bit of the heavy duty after the oil has had a chance to penetrate. i wear these in the winter in chicago and with all the salt and stuff i figure the heavy duty might be a nice thicker protectant.

thanks for sterring me towards oberauf's folks, i hope i like the results.

 

[burningbright]

Originally Posted by whiskeybeard

Weird, I'd never heard that about sno-seal before. My boots are indeed the Amber, and I used it just once but it seemed to work fine. What is the problem with using it on regular leather supposed to be? It doesn't say anything about this on the jar that I can see.

I'm trying to recall now where I read it, but I do know that when I asked Art about using Sno-seal on my Ambers (he's the 74 year old store manager of my local Red Wing store) he nearly started stroking. I'll look a little bit more and see what I can find.

In the meantime, I think I posted this in another thread but here's the results of Sno-seal on a roughout boot from WWII Impressions.

http://www.90thidpg.us/Equipment/Pro...ing/index.html

 

[eightdouble]

for what it's worth, i have used sno-seal with great success on my beeswax clarks.

i just used it on a pair of wallabees that i ebayed and they looked amazing.

 

[burningbright]

Originally Posted by eightdouble

for what it's worth, i have used sno-seal with great success on my beeswax clarks.

i just used it on a pair of wallabees that i ebayed and they looked amazing.

I can't be certain, but that's what I think I'm trying to get at: that it's more suited to softer suede-type material like beeswax DB than standard leather. At least that's all I've ever seen it used for. That and old, crazy Art telling me not to use it on my IR Ambers. You'd think he was about to take my boots away from me like DCFS taking a kid away.

 

[eightdouble]

i considered using sno-seal on these RWs, but these are expensive boots so i wanted to make a thread about it first. i can see how it would work better on a more supple leather, like the clarks. i'm excited to try both obernauf's products.

 

[eightdouble]

i thought i'd post my results on this thread. obviously my photos aren't as good as the studio photos of the original, but i'm quite pleased with how these came out. the darker boot is much more of my style, though i really like the original i will get more use out of them in this darker shade. the photos don't capture the nice varied, oiled patina that they have developed in real life.

this represents a great deal of time and work, both with obenauf's leather oil, and then two coats of obenauf's heavy duty LP, as well as a bit of wax polish at the end. thanks for all the recommendations in this thread.

the boots now:

__________________________________________________________
the original shade (as new)

 

[JustinW]

^

very impressive - well done!

 

[RecoveringChef]

Originally Posted by whiskeybeard

Weird, I'd never heard that about sno-seal before. My boots are indeed the Amber, and I used it just once but it seemed to work fine. What is the problem with using it on regular leather supposed to be? It doesn't say anything about this on the jar that I can see.

I just picked up a pair in Amber Harness. Would you mind posting some pics showing how your boots looked after using Sno Seal?

 

[nathan]

Woah, that's a pretty drastic change. I've used Obenauf's LP on leather and it never turned out that much darker.

Anyway, I like the color of your boots.

 

[eightdouble]

thanks. it's been a few months and the color has gotten even better. the photos show a near uniform brown, but they definitely have some variations.

 

[eightdouble]

in case anyone ever picks up this thread in the future and wanna see what several coats of obenauf's leather oil and a few coats of heavy duty LP would do to the finish of a boot, here are some pics of them a few months after completion. (a bit dirty but i was actually doing some work in them) i go back and forth on the laces, i had these in today.

 

[handsometigers]

Where do you order your sno seal and Obenauf heavy duty LP? Boots look great by the way!