**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.**

[traverscao]

It bears repeating...Many things can be done to shoes or leather but the real question is always "should it be done?"

O...K sir! It shouldn't be done then...

(I know of the horror stories)

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Most leather you see is most likely chrome tanned because it is one of the quickest cheapest methods of tanning leather. Also the application of the leather dictates the type of tannage.

 

[traverscao]

Most leather you see is most likely chrome tanned because it is one of the quickest cheapest methods of tanning leather. Also the application of the leather dictates the type of tannage.

I guess so...

 

[traverscao]

Poor quality chrome calf?

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Just because it is chrome tanned doesn't mean it is poor. Back in the day there was only vegetable, so there wasn't really a choice.

 

[jerrybrowne]

Bick4 is great. Thanks to DWF for the rec....

 

[chogall]

If for whatever reasons anyone decide to bleach leather, please remember that bleach takes hours to go into effect. Do not worry when color doesn't bleach out immediately; wipe it dry and let it set overnight.

 

[DWFII]



Bick4 is great. Thanks to DWF for the rec....

 

[traverscao]

Just because it is chrome tanned doesn't mean it is poor. Back in the day there was only vegetable, so there wasn't really a choice.

No, Pat, I wasn't saying chrome is poor (french boxcalf was full chrome), I was saying that AE's calf quality isn't great. Not that all chrome leathers are poor. Our military used to use chrome leather for boots because full veg tanned leather boots rots in France.

 

[jerrybrowne]



Will it do anything for shell?

 

[DWFII]



full veg tanned leather boots rots in France.

Why would it rot in France but not in England? It doesn't make sense...

Most outsole leather is full veg. One of the foremost tanneries of full veg outsoling is Baker Leather...in Colyton, Devon, England. Most of those outsoles live in London where, rumour has it, it's wet a lot. One way or the other veg tan has been around for a lot longer than chrome and survived worse than chrome has had time to be exposed to. The Meta Catarina Russia calf was underwater for two plus centuries.

The advantage that chrome has over veg is that it's faster to tan.

 

[DWFII]



Will it do anything for shell?

Horween recommends Venetian Shoe Cream which has petroleum distillates in it, and is toxic. AFAIK, Bick4...while not edible is neither.

To answer your question more directly, I wouldn't hesitate to use it on shell. But I don't like shell and don't use it much...never have.

 

[traverscao]

Why would it rot in France but not in England? It doesn't make sense...

Most outsole leather is full veg. One of the foremost tanneries of full veg outsoling is Baker Leather...in Colyton, Devon, England. Most of those outsoles live in London where, rumour has it, it's wet a lot. One way or the other veg tan has been around for a lot longer than chrome and survived worse than chrome has had time to be exposed to. The Meta Catarina Russia calf was underwater for two plus centuries.

The advantage that chrome has over veg is that it's faster to tan.

Sir, the first batch of the trench boots made for our troops during The First Great War (respectively WW1) was made of full vegetable pit tanned leather, including the sole. They later on had the upper chrome and veg retanned, and then on in the 60s full chrome to save money, as you said. But the Pershing boots were chromed veg retanned.

Come to think about it, though, you're more right than I am, because the troops had to stand in mud, dirt, and poisonous water more than we do.

Russia Calf, sir, was drenched in aromatic oil, which, I believe, was a great contribution.

 

[DWFII]



Sir, the first batch of the trench boots made for our troops during The First Great War (respectively WW1) was made of full vegetable pit tanned leather, including the sole. They later on had the upper chrome and veg retanned, and then on in the 60s full chrome to save money, as you said. But the Pershing boots were chromed veg retanned. 

Come to think about it, though, you're more right than I am, because the troops had to stand in mud, dirt, and poisonous water more than we do.

Russia Calf, sir, was drenched in aromatic oil, which, I believe, was a great contribution.

I don't know where I got it and it might be apocryphal but I seem to recall that there was a great scandal regarding the supplier of leather boots during the First World War esp. in Britain. Poor leather, poor workmanship.

Coats made of wool shoddy fell apart in the first heavy rain during the Am. Civil War. Does that mean wool is a subject to rot or to falling apart?

It's perhaps worth remembering that living human flesh rotted in the trenches, as well.

Regardless I'd place the record of vegetable tanned leather...which must go back a thousand years at least...against the record of chrome tanned leather and point out, forbye, that chrome tanning is inherently toxic and damaging to people and places. I know that's not the issue but it's inescapable.

--

 

[traverscao]

I don't know where I got it and it might be apocryphal but I seem to recall that there was a great scandal regarding the supplier of leather boots during the First World War esp. in Britain. Poor leather, poor workmanship.

Regardless I'd place the record of vegetable tanned leather...which must go back a thousand years at least...against the record of chrome tanned leather and point out, forbye, that chrome tanning is inherently toxic and damaging to people and places. I know that's not the issue but it's inescapable.

Well, for the part of the scandal, did it happened in our boots supply in the US as well? I knew of our troops' bitter complains about British ammo boots, but the prime concern on our US boots were rotting issues.

Chrome tanned leather certainly is toxic and damaging. Imagine how long chrome or metal takes to be dispose of, and I cannot sleep well.

Personally, I would stick to vegetable tanned leather any day in the week, and any minutes in the hour. But it seems like they are getting rare (as of shoe leather, especially smooth calf).