Ammo boots

they are repairable mate, hobnails do fall out with a monotonus regularity. ( yith hobbed mine, 13 in each boot, a week later i lost 6 out of each boot at grange farm) find a proper cobblers, not sketchleys etc, and get them repaired.the trick is to have 2 pairs( yith 5) and wear the crappest pair for skirmishing, the others for "best".

Heck in Northampton I believe there is one of the original manufacturers still producing decent ammo boots...

Now you're asking!

It was in a single thread somewhere on one of the forums a few months ago. Will take me a bit to find it!

Got it...

However, my bad, they're not in Northampton..

This is the thread:
http://www.wwiireenacting.co.uk/forum/v ... =1&t=51876

Price £84.95 Inc P & P.

Contact:
Dan Walker
William Lennon & Co Ltd
http://www.williamlennon.co.uk
dan@williamlennon.co.uk

I just found these on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BNIB-AMMO-BOOTS-B ... 1|294%3A50

Brand new ammo boots in various sizes.

I think the uppers are properly pebbled with only the toecap being smooth, like they should be. But it's hard to tell from the picture. If I was buying I'd double check with the seller before shelling out.

Also the hobnails are the nasty cloverleaf ones... gah! and it looks like there may be an extra layer of sole screwed on with 4 nasty screws as well...

Hobnails shouldn't be a problem as he also sells the right ones. The screws are a bind though!

Soles are rubber though - I'd rather pay the extra £15 and get some pukka ones from Lennon's!

I hadn't noticed that... oh well forget those then!

What's the best thing to treat soles with, BTW?

since i've got back from arial, the leather on the sole has dried out, and basically torn itself away from the nails holding it on.

Which now makes for my third pair of knackered boots...

Any way to recover them? i know they'll need resoling, as they're only held on by the hobnails now, but something to stop it happening the next time they get wet would be nice.

Chuck some dubbin on them? I don't know... ask your cobbler perhaps?

ask your cobbler perhaps?

I'll have to get one first! I've taken them two 'old style' places now and they've sucked their teeth and looked at me like i've asked them to nail their first- and second-born to the bottom of my boots.

there's a place in town i'm going to try next, but there's nowhere to park and i don't get that way very often.

If you can get them to me I can take them to my cobbler. He's only up the road from where I work.

Dubbin is the answer, take as much care of the soles as the uppers!
I have used other natural liquid leather treatments/feeders on all my leather soled boots but I am of the opinion that it's best just to use dubbin to keep water out of the leather from the start. Animal based products are prone to mould grown if you are careless with storage/cleaning after use and with repro boots that use piss-poor leather and build (compared to military standard) the soles tend to go squishy and crapped up by gravel.
Something like the Lennon boots that are properly made and use high grade leathers will just need dubbin I'm sure.

Dubbin is the answer, take as much care of the soles as the uppers!
I have used other natural liquid leather treatments/feeders on all my leather soled boots but I am of the opinion that it's best just to use dubbin to keep water out of the leather from the start. Animal based products are prone to mould grown if you are careless with storage/cleaning after use and with repro boots that use piss-poor leather and build (compared to military standard) the soles tend to go squishy and crapped up by gravel.
Something like the Lennon boots that are properly made and use high grade leathers will just need dubbin I'm sure.

Cheers, mine are '52 dated real 'uns, so once i get them resoled, i'll liberally treat them with dubbin, and hopefully that'll keep them waterproof and in good nick.

First thing i usually do after an event (Once i've recovered enough!) is to polish my boots, to make sure they stay in decent condition, but these being my first pair of leather soled boots, i didn't think to do anything to the underside...

Did you polish the sides of the soles at all? That's probably where most of the moisture gets in.

I do nearly always use black dubbin rather than polish on my airsofting boots. I don't often do anything to the actual bottom of the soles. I probably should though!

I think CW has hit the nail on the head there - the quality of leather soles on repros can leave a lot to be desired. In addition, my cobbler told me NOT to use dubbin on the soles, because it makes them too soft! Instead, I use Carr's leather oil - and not just because it smells nice!

i just polish the soles on mine with ordinary black wax polish.

It was Carrs Leather Oil that made my repro soles squidgy! That's the camphor-based product isn't it? Used liberally on the uppers makes them nice and supple though.
It's often quoted not to use dubbin 'cos it rots the stitching which is hard to believe since it's been around since medieval times! Its just wax, oil and tallow so a good lubricant as well as waterproofer.

Dubbin is actually quite soft and goes quite runny with the warmth of the hand when applying so you will use a LOT of it - I've used half a tin on one boot pair application! An alternative is Nikwax Waterproofing Wax for Leather - more waxy and goes much further and probably avoids what Steiner's cobbler was warning about. More a surface protector than a leather treatment.

I'm sure you don't want soft leather for boot soles when used 'in battle' as stone damage is great - but you do want to stop water ingress to the boot and leather absorbing too much water.
Oh, and using leather treatments on the sole swells the leather and grips the nails better!

Kiwi/Cherry polish is just wax/solvent/colour - so repels water and looks nice but doesn't do anything for the leather itself, just a surface treatment.

I've been using a German product. It comes in large flat white tins with with either clear or black contents.

It goes on just like polish and you don't need as much of the black stuff as you do the clear stuff when applying to US roughout boots.

just been quizzing our local cobler, he recomends nikwax for leather soles, he says dubbin does rot the stitching if its waxed cotton, if its modern nylon, no probs, my ammo boots are dated 1952 so i am going with cotton ...... and he is going to order us some british hobnail/boot protectors and we can have them at cost ( he gets them for roger now and then so he knows what we are after).

Anyone know much about antipodean boots? I read on a museum resource from Australia that their boots were brown and NZ boots were issued brown, but re-polished black if required by circumstance (I've no idea what that would be). From what I've turned up in the photgraphic record, NZ boots were clearly around in both colours.
Here's an example of the Australian version http://www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Militaria/WWII-earlier/auction-242227028.htm

ps I really don't think this bloke knows what he's on about