Boot care

[Deleted member 397]

I'm planning to wear leather boots on my next camino and have been doing quite a bit of research and came across an interesting piece of info that relates to all boots-especially gore tex pnes. The advise was to immerse the boots in water for 15 minutes then rinse in clean water. The rationale was that this will remove accumulated sweat salts that can clog the gore tex membrane thereby reducing efficiency. Sounds reasonable.

 

[MaxKolbe]

I closely examined my 6 year old leather boots a couple of weeks ago. To my horror a few stitches had broken near the front (where it bends with your toes when you step). I was in a pickle as I didn't want to have to "wear in" new boots before the start of my Camino (early Sept) and I didn't really fancy spending the money on these new boots.

Fortunetly my sister suggested I try sealing the tiny gap that had appeared (and was being worried larger by me!) with some glue that she had recently acquired with a puncture repair kit for an inflatible dinghy. In short, it worked GREAT. Totally waterproof while still being very flexible (when you think about it the inflatable boat will be stretched and compressed numerous time so it would need to flex).

So if you have a minor hole in your leather boots try looking in your local chandlery (Sorry - the glue wasn't trademarked.....but I'm sure there are brand names available).