How to Care for Leather Boots

Hi, I'm Sam with the Homestead Box , and todaywe're going to talk about leather care.

To get started with today's project, you'regoing to need a soft bristled brush, a small stiff brush, an old sock or an old handkerchief,whatever you have laying around, and some leather care products.

And then I like to have a small kit to keepit all in and you're going to need some water on hand.

So the first thing your going to want to dois take out your boot laces.

This is one of the most important steps becauseto really access where all most of the dirt and grime hangs up you're going to want totake your boot laces out.

Then grab your soft bristled brush and justbrush off any excess dirt you know anything visible that 'll just come off easily.

Make sure to get in these area here.

The next thing, is really important, grabyour stiff bristle brush, and catch all along the laces here.

The stitching, not the laces-- the stitching.

OK.

Now we are going to move on to using someleather care products.

There's a lot of different leather care productsout there.

I chose this brand specifically because theydo not use petroleum based products.

They treat leather care like skin care, andthat is important to me.

So we're going to start with our saddle soap.

I use an old sock where the elastic has gonebad.

I just put it over my hand like a mitt.

Dip it in your water.

Load it with some soap.

And apply it so that your building up a foam,to get all that dirt out of there.

this basically just washes the leather andprovides a little bit of conditioning.

Make sure you get all down in the cracks.

I really like to focus on the toe areas andinside the tongue here because they take a lot of wear and catch a lot of grime.

After this stage, I like to take a little excess water, and just wipe it all down, to take out any excess soap.

Now take the dry part of your sock or rag,and just take off all of that excess water.

Our boot is already looking better.

Now you're going to want to set this in aplace where it can dry.

Now that our boot is dry, we're going to applysome kind of leather salve or oil to treat the leather, re-moisten it and help protectit from water.

We just want to load enough salve or oil toreally coat the boot well.

Really focus on any area that have stitching.

These need a little extra protection.

Don't forget about the inside of the tongue.

Depending on how dry your boot is, will determinehow much leather salve or oil you will need on your boots.

You will notice it starts to take up the salveor oil, and it will start to get a cloudy sheen.

That a good thing.

Once it's done soaking up the oil, we're goingto buff that extra oil away with our soft bristled brush.

That's hard to say.

So you are going to want to take your brush(I like to hold my boots like this, brush in this hand) and move really quickly.

Now if you want to polish your boots, maybethat is another video, but we just want to knock off that cloudy coat.

Now that we've been over boot care, no matterwhat products You choose to use follow the manufacture's instructions, but there's twobasic guidelines I can give you today.

You always want to clean, and then treat your boots.

Cleaning is good.

Treating is good, but you really need to cleanbefore you treat for the best, to get the best performance out of your boots.

Now that we've done boots, don't forget aboutyour belts, sheaths, watch straps, hats, and just any other leather goods you have lyingaround.

Source: Youtube