Boot Care and Boot discussion

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http://www.thepathfinderschoolllc.com

Tags: Pathfinder Survival Bushcraft,Danner Boots

Video Transcription

even good

back in the woods one of guys Dave Canterbury at the Pathfinder school I thought what I do today is I had a lot of questions on the Danner boot video and I've had questions in the past as well about how to care for your boots what boots do I wear things of that nature there's actually several different brands of boots that I have worn I have worn Muck Boots quite a bit I wear a lot of muck boots in the wintertime in wet environments I'll wear muck edge waters if I'm just kicking around the edge of the water I'm not going to submerge those boots because boots only is waterproof as they are tall as far as that goes but the other thing is I wear muck Arctic pros a lot when I'm in a wintertime environment deep snow and things like that they've always been a really warm boot for me now I'm going to try some different boots out this year I'm gonna try some dinners out that I'll show you in a minute but for generally kicking around the woods I have worn a lot of boots like Bates boots Wolverine boots they've worn out over time very quickly within about a year I have a pair of Cabela's Guide series boots that I've worn quite a bit and they're still going strong of course they're made in China most boots nowadays are made in China unless you buy specifically us-made boots from a company you're going to pay a premium price we'll talk a little bit about why some of the things are made in China and part of it's not due to money as much as it is technology and we'll talk about that in a minute with these deiner pronghorns but deiner boots these dana pronghorns here have been all over the world they've been a good boot for me I've had them for around three years and they're still in pretty good shape there's no rips or tears in them the linings still get on the inside and these are a china made boot the danner pronghorn is now made in China the GTX it's got a toe guard and a heel guard on it the sole of this boot is the reason that this boot is made in China if you look at a boot when you walk into any store and you see a welded sole in other words that sole is glued on to the boot itself but not necessarily stitched all the way around you can see this one stitched here and it's got some stitching here but it's welded on the front and it's welded along this side right here where this plate comes up on the

side and that comes from sneaker technology from overseas and they have the technology over there to weld those soles on to the material better than we have in the US or at least the technology is very expensive to bring to the US so people choose to use factories in China to make their shoes now I did talk to the guy at Danner extensively about that and what he told me was that the companies in China the manufacturing companies have different ratings they have like an A rating a double A rating a Triple A rating and so on depending on how good their quality and service is and deiner only uses Triple A rated companies to do manufacturing in China they are very very picky about the quality of their boot and like I said this Dana prong one is made in China and it's been a very very good boot for me the cabela's Guide series boot that I'm wearing right now also has been a very very good boot for me and it's made in China as well I actually picked them up on an accident one time because I had went somewhere and left my diner pronghorns at the house by accident rushing to get out and all I was wearing with a pair of keen shoes so I needed a pair of boots and I ended up buying those Cabela's Guide series boots out of Cabela's for that trip and they broke in really well and they've worn really well since they don't have a lot of insulation in them so they're very comfortable boot to wear even in hotter type whether this pronghorn boot is 200 grams of insulation in this thing senseless Thinsulate so it's a little warm for hot weather environments but in the you know in the spring in the fall in the winter it's a decent boot up until it gets really really cold I'm going to try two different pair I'll show you in a few minutes so let's come back to boot care because we're going to demonstrate that boot care on these pronghorns to get them ready for the fall the other two pairs of boots that I'm trying right now are both Danner's one of them is a Wellington boot and this is it right here and it's a full just a slip-on boot I got this boot and again you can see it's got a welded sole so it is made in China now I got this boot just for basically kicking around on the farm and things like that this is a gore-tex boot it has gore-tex technology so it is waterproof it's supposed to be breathable and it is full leather it's got a lining in got it about a quarter of the way down all the way down inside it's supposed to be a fairly warm boot it's really really comfortable so far I've only had these boots for about four days but I've worn them everyday except for today because of this video since I got them and they've been a very very comfortable boot they broke in very easily even on the airplane coming back from Portland when your feet swell up your legs swell up on a plane they didn't get so tight that they were uncomfortable so they're very nice boot I'll show you the other one and this is like I said this is a wellington style boot but like I said it's real comfortable it's easy to get on and off it's got a nice sole on it for kicking around the farm and things like that this would not be a sole that I'd want to use necessarily for a hunting boot and things like that but it's got good traction aren't there oil resistant slip resistant things like that if you're wearing them around the factory to work in or something like that these would probably be a good choice the boot that I chose to try this winter

I took the recommendation the guys up Tanner I wanted to try what they consider one of their best US made boots and this boot is the Canadian boot and it is a 10 inch boot I have not broken these in yet I've only tried them on it's a 10 inch full leather boot the sole is soaked completely all the way around good indicator that's probably made in the US it's got a made in the US tag right on it this has got 600 grams of line insulation inside of it's supposed to be a very very very warm boot it has new sole technology on it with these knobs on it the very heavy-duty sole it's going to give you a lot of grip when you're climbing and things like that I tried these things a little bit on their terrain tester out there and it gave me a lot of grip but the true test will be this winter in the snow and in the woods things like that but I was assured and I'm very very partial to a Vibram sole these are not Vibram soles but I was assured that if I wear these things out I'm more than welcome to send these in to get Vibram soles put on them so this is a very nice looking pair of boots they're high they're heavy-duty they're not going to wear out you know they're leather and you saw the refurbishing that Danner does I have every confidence to the world that once I beat these things up so they can't take it anymore on the soles the leather will still be going strong as long as I take care of them and I'll just send them back to Dana for refurbishment so let's talk real quick then about taking care of your boots because I think that's an important question as well I think you're going to find a lot of a lot of opinions about boots are very similar to that of opinions on knives and guns and everybody's favorite boot is their best boot you know it's the best boot there is I think that boots in general fall into the same category as knives and guns people say what's the best one to have it's probably the one you have in a situation where you need it but your boots carry you in your boots carry you out I would urge you to at least buy the best quality pair of boots that you can buy like I said the brands that I would trust the Cabela's guide series is a good boot anything by muck boot company is a good boot if you're looking for something around the water lacrosse makes a very good water type boot or a Wellington type rubber boot little cross makes very good boots and then danner

of course for leather so set these off to the side for a minute we'll get these prong ones over here now one thing that I'm going to tell you and I find that a lot of people have made this mistake including myself I was talking to the gentleman Danner and asking them what is the best thing to dress my leather boots with to care for them and help them become waterproof well any place you go just about any place that sells boots including Walmart and Kmart sells mink oil as well as saddle soap well mink oil is great for leather but they tell me that's very bad for stitching it will rot the stitching away in your boots so mink oil is not the thing you want to use now you can buy petroleum-based products if you want to go that route but I prefer to use things that are natural so what I use is just this regular fixing wax that we saw on our website it's called fixing wax because it's good for about everything it's made with beeswax it's made with animal fat and it's made with vitamin E it doesn't go rancid it doesn't go bad it lasts forever

it's good for lubricating and caring for anything from leather to metal to canvas and things like that it will help you waterproof your canvas and all I do with this stuff is take it and just rub really really good and you can see it very very soft it's not a soft as like a paste would be but it's soft enough that you can definitely get it into the fabric and what I'll do is I'll just take this old muslin bag here and rub it into the fabric real good or into the leather real good excuse me and then what I would do with that is once I've got these things oiled it up or greased up really good with this fixing wax and I've got it in the leather really really good I would take these things and set them near not in or too close but near to my campfire so that it would have a chance to permeate into the leather really really well and there's a couple areas on this boot that are not leather that are more of a fabric in the tongue and things like that but the whole upper and things like that is all leather so I'll just smear it on there really good just like that and then I'll go back with this Muslim and it's kind of got some grip to it it's kind of rough and I'm going to just polish it in there and that friction is going to heat it up a little bit and help it to permeate the leather but caring for your boots is very very important especially at the end of the season or at the beginning of the season or both before you put these things up for the season you should definitely you know take care of them and get them oiled up really good with this fixing wax or whatever you choose to use on your leather some type of leather dressing and put them in your closet that way if they're wet when you put them away or they're damp or the leather it's starting to get any kind of a rot to it that will help take care of that will help preserve that leather and once you've done that then you can put those things away and they're going to be good to go for you when you get them out the next season you're not going to tear up on your rip up and that's important to understand you've got to take care of these things both before the season after the season and during the season and what the guys that Dana recommended to me was is that you dress your boots or care for your boots especially if you're wearing them every day like I do off and on depending on the season what boot I'm wear they recommend that every couple of weeks you put a fresh dressing on the boot so that's what I'm going to try to do this season and you can see some of that gummed up in the eyelets a little bit that's no big deal came right out and I'll go ahead and do that twice over this whole boot and then I'll do the same thing with the other boot and they'll be ready for the seat okay guys well we got our boots all done and got our supplies left to put away we'll get our boots near a heat source of some kind where we can get that stuff to soak into the leather really good it will probably put another coat on there before the season starts in a long-term self-reliant situation you could use any type of animal tallow fat or lard to do the same thing with it's a natural material it's not going to hurt your boots a bit it will help waterproof and care for the leather so I appreciate you joining me for this video I hope it answers some of the questions that you had I'll answer questions by comments if you have them other than that if I can I appreciate you joining me for this video I appreciate everything that you do for me for my family for my school I'll be back with another educational video as soon as I can you