right after a small saga I've finally got me jack boots and i thought i'd share a little of the story of breaking them in and changing the sole. firstly these can be got from many places but these ones are from epic and are called bundeswehr ,when they arrived i could hardly get my feet into them the leather was so hard,i'd been warned about it by someone on this forum but didnt realise just how hard they would be,i had previously been let down by another supplier at the last moment before a game and was a little angry,now not so much as if i'd tried to use them only a few days after getting them they would have crippled me.
my first impression was i had a size too small and would have to send them back,on closer inspection i found that a modern insole had been inserted presumably to make them more comfy but what it did was squash my feet upward and the curve of the heel came too low cutting into my foot,so once removed there was a lot more room but it was still almost impossible to get them on and off so i started to look at leather softening products.
i ended up getting some stuff called Dolben leather softener in a 100ml bottle,it comes in liquid form and is applied internally to the raw side of the leather and then left for 24 hours,ive got to say i was really impressed with it you could almost immediately see the difference and i mean see not feel .
after the 24 hours it was incredible how much softer and looser they were so i began wearing them about the house for a few days before i considered them good enough to ware out ,then it was dog walking time.... after the first walk i was developing blisters on the back of my heels so back to the drawing board.
now unlike lace up boots these must grip you'r feet to hold them on so a loose fit is no good as they will rub ,with that thought i tried two pairs of socks and found it much better but still the leather was stiff at the heal and toe.so next was Timpson cobblers cream a 50ml jar was worked in over the next few days along with needing the leather at the heel is double thick and toe were the cap is toughened,this transformed them and i could finally do an hours walk in comfort.
this walking i did for a month until they were totally broken in ,next was the sole,they come with a tough plastic textured half sole that another forum member recommended replacing with leather then hob nails and after a trip to the cobbler £19 for the leather sole and ebay for the nails £10 for 50 its done and tonight it was another walk with the dog that i expected to be a little uncomfortable again.... to my surprise they are more comfortable than ever ,i must admit i watched the cobbler remove the first plastic sole and it was as tough as old boots so to say ,i guess the plastic had degraded and become stiff with age.
so Dolben leather softener 
Timpson cobblers cream and re-sole with leather and take some time.
finally ive got some black dubbin ,a mix of dubbin and polish to keep them good ,hope this helps someone.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
I had a similar thing with mine, the leather was like iron when I got them, but as they are actual military boots it is very thick and good quality.
I used leather softener on the inside, three coats of neatsfoot oil on the outside (maybe four?) and they've had several coats of dubbin. Also wore them around the house for weeks and to do the gardening.
I wore them with the plastic sole to a couple of games, and they weren't too bad but my feet were very sore after the first one last summer. Got them resoled for Sevastopol and they weren't bad at all, lost a couple of hobnails though.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
had a little fun putting the nails in ,ive got one of those cobblers anvils but couldn't use it because it wouldn't reach far enough ,i can now comfortably ware them with just one pair of socks.you always lose a nail or two ,i wonder how they dealt with that back in the day,i suppose they must have had stores of them and a cobbler .
.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
I believe the trick is to thoroughly wet the sole before nailing to swell the leather so that when it dries out it grips the nail shaft more tightly. I don't think cobblers would be arsed though (why would they cut off returning trade? 
). In any case, back then there were cobblers in towns and villages everywhere and every working person had hobnailed boots, so the cost of replacing nails would have been next to nothing. I've no idea whether soldiers were charged for boot repairs by the unit cobbler or whether it was a cost borne by the army (but I'd assume they had to pay themselves).
I've got a last as well(knew there was a proper name) but mine is for shoes or low boots ,the neck is too short to fit in long boots,i had to use a large hammer inserted head first into the boot with the handle resting on the chair between my legs to support the sole while using another hammer to bang the nails in, a bit awkward but not too bad,for the nails at the edge i held them so the edge of the sole was on the edge of a table,worked pretty well.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
I've also got a cobblers last (inherited from the cellar of the last house but one), but it is to short for marching boots.
Main problem I had replacing the hobnails was that one had snapped off and I couldn't get the stump out of the sole, so I had to nail the replacement in next to it so the pattern is a bit irregular now.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
I've also got a cobblers last (inherited from the cellar of the last house but one), but it is to short for marching boots.
Main problem I had replacing the hobnails was that one had snapped off and I couldn't get the stump out of the sole, so I had to nail the replacement in next to it so the pattern is a bit irregular now.
Cheers
Martin
you should see the sole of my ammo boots,i think more nails snap than fall out
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Genossen,
Studs falling out, breaking off or just wearing out in short order are a norm, if the fall out and you find them, you can super glue them back in. Modern studs are made of very soft metal.
A bit of an OT tangent but, rather pleasingly, Blakey's are 110 years old are still going in Leeds - a much reduced company with a very small range (but still shipping 230 tonnes a year).
Meh, a little bit of Britain still lives on!
http://www.blakeys-segs.co.uk/
I wonder where ammo boot studs are made these days? The high hexagonal ones I bought for my German boots came from old stocks but the WW2-type British flat, hatched nails seem to be new kit.
ive got some modern pattern ones out of a pair of parade boots and they have three heads,i think they are called cloverleaf pattern,they'r much taller as well
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
