Best waterproof treatment for leather boots?

It's a mineral oil you need, not vegetable oil. Vaseline is the simplest but maybe it isn't "right on" enough

Reply to
Stuart Noble
Loading thread data ...

"Castor oil is a vegetable oil obtained from the castor bean (technically castor seed as the castor plant, Ricinus communis, is not a member of the bean family)". (Wikipedia)

NEXT!

Reply to
Chris Game

snip

No, I got my memory back with a later post. I forget which aircraft used it though. I had worked at A.V. Roe before moving to Warton, Lancs. It was there I found out about it.

What an awesome sight they were. We once had a flypast of a pair, at Warton, some time ago. I hope Lord Tebbit gets the last one back in the air.

All this reminds me of the bombing run to the Falkland Isles. Originally, there were to be 2 Vulcans going to do the bombing run, supported by, IIRC, 17 Victor tankers (I must have worked on most of them modifying them from V bombers to flight refuelling tankers from

1974 to 1978) The tankers went out, refuelling themselves and the one remaining Vulcan (the second one went sick just before flight and I'm not sure if one of the tankers went sick as well). It still makes me shudder at the tremendous effort of sending all those aircraft just to put a bomb crater on that runway. Big brother is watching you ??

Typical of the armed forces though :-)

They came to BAe Warton, as it was known then, for an up-grade about 10 or 12 years ago (I took early retirement in 1999 at the age of 53, so time is now something I do not bother with). They were in very good condition for their age. We up-graded several system and in particular, the cameras. When the last one was due for collection, we were asked for our home map references. A few weeks later I saw one of them flying over me. A few days later came some amazingly detailed photos for us all. :-)

We had a couple of them at Warton. I'll never forget someone who worked on them telling me that they got held weather for one flight. It was summer and there was not a cloud in the sky. They were doing early development for Tornado F3 radar and needed the clouds. I didn't work on them though.

, then squadrons there and Germany), back to Canberras during

What a shame. I'll bet he would be surprised to see them still flying many years later. Looks like they were finally retired in 2006. :-(

Who was it that sang 'Thanks for the memories'?

Dave

Reply to
Dave

Sort of like Rum Doodle?

cheers, clive

Reply to
Clive George

You mean putting just ONE bomb crater on that runway... ;-) all the others missed.....

Reply to
Gordon
[Canberra]

I was still working on them (and other cold-war hangovers) in 1996. I was gutted to see one of the Buccaneers I had worked on gutted and placed as a lawn ornament. It's shown on Google Maps.

AFAIK the Hunters, Andover, Comet and assorted other aircraft were simply scrapped.

Reply to
Steve Firth

That wrapped.

Try

formatting link
Google Earth, and "fly to" "51.277723,-0.793011"

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Indeed, but your newsreader should have worked with it, unless your newsreader is broken.

Reply to
Steve Firth

I will try to add some background to this tale . . .

The Castor Oil method is ancient. I came across it in the Sixties reading Walter Poucher's "The Lakeland Peaks". It should be noted that he was talking about nailed boots, who's construction was exclusively leather. I used it on my old Scarpa Monte Rosa's, which had Vibram soles and a wooden shank, but otherwise no "modern" components - no fancy liner, no Gore-Tex, and no treatment already applied to the leather.

It makes the leather, and the boots, much more supple, easing any fitting problems but reducing the support you would otherwise get from stiff leather.

It makes the leather completely waterproof - all the spaces where water might soak in are now filled with oil. By treating the leather from the inside out, you are certain that the proofing is thorough. As far as I remember, after pouring out all the oil the boots were left for a few days for the remaining oil to soak in. The first few walks did leave me with slightly oily socks, but they were wool to start with and didn't suffer.

I haven't used the same method on my new Scarpa XL's - the leather is pre-treated with Hydrobloc, and I have continued to use that.

If the castor oil method was used on Gore-Tex lined boots, the liner would become impervious, blocked by the oil, and at the same time it would prevent the oil from reaching the leather outer. However my considered opinion is that the result would be more durable than the Gore-Tex sock alone, which *always* fails, usually within a few months.

Using castor oil in boots with any kind of sock liner e.g. Cambrelle, will result in oil-soaked liners and oily socks, for a while. Messy, but otherwise nothing more than inconvenient.

Interestingly, Poucher recommends a snug fit at the ankle, not for sideways support but to stop the toes being forced into the toecap on the descent. He is strongly in support of "supple uppers" - no need for ankle support is mentioned.

Reply to
Alan Dicey

Olive oil usually has more of the organic bits of the fruit in it, which go rancid. It also tends to be a LOT more expensive. However, if you have access to fully refined olive oil, you could try it. I make no claims for it's success.

Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

Me too. It'll be the best thing he's ever done!

I think dad had flown one of those two in it's early days... Can't remember for sure. Mostly he was on maritime reconnaissances.

Hehehe... My best memory of a Vulcan is watching one terrain following up a glen - below me! REALLY scary...

They were put up as emergency housing at the end of the war, and were supposed to last five years: like many such things, they were better built than they thought they were, so no-one got round to replacing them until just after we left, 15 years after they were put up! They were the second best designed home my parents ever lived in. Mum says the best was the showman's caravan they had when my sister was born: the only place where ALL the cupboards shut and stayed shut, everything was within reach, and it was warm! :D

They are lovely aircraft. You may have noticed that some had no matching panels anywhere: some of the early ones were built under licence by Short Brothers, using ship-building panelling methods... They were... eccentric! Built like a brick netty, though.

My father was one of the team that did the aerial survey of Kenya in the mid sixties, which is why Kenya still has some of the best maps outside the UK. They just dig out the old ones and add any new roads and stuff to the basic background done then.

Tornado... Before it got its name it was MRCA (Multi Role Combat Aircraft): known to my pa's compadres as Mother Riley's Cardboard Aircraft or Mass Refurbished Canberra - Again!

He thought they'd outlive the Phantom* (he was right), and they'd have done better to upgrade the Buccaneer for the role: quicker, cheaper, and the airframe was more robust!

*Phantom II - A triumph of thrust over aerodynamics! Floats like a lead balloon! Seeing a diamond nine of those boys doing a formation roll over Tattershall Castle at dusk will stay with me forever.
Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

I don't know what olive oil is like, but my experience of vegetable oils is that the eventually set like tough varnish. I had some wheel bearings that were lubricated with veg. oil and the oil that got on to the hubs and rims was almost impossible to get off.

Is castor oil 'cooked' or denatured in some way so that it doesn't set?

I'm tempted to try this on some old boots - nothing to lose, as they've gone hard!

Reply to
PeterC

Neatsfoot oil (available from cobblers and saddlers) would be the oil of choice for that task.

As to the OP's question, for many years I've been content with Nikwax and (on my winter boots) Zamberlan Hydrobloc.

Martin.

Reply to
Martin Sylvester

The vast majority don't dry at all in their natural state, the exceptions being linseed and tung.

I had some wheel bearings that

Reply to
Stuart Noble

How would you "half-burn" AVPIN? The stuff is sheer angriness in a bottle!

The PR.9 (but not the other Canberras, they used cordite cartridges) used it too, as did the Lightning, Javelin and soem Hunters. I don't know why a Canberra would bother with it - it's foul stuff and has all sorts of problems, even worse than hydrazine. It was just about justifiable for a rapid reponse interceptor scramble in the '50s, but why for the PR.9s?

Sadly the shortage of AVPIN these days is likely to stop the privately- owned Lightnings from running again 8-(

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Not on its own, and making up potions with it is tricky, as is its application.

Firstly you don't just need a wax (to seal the leather), you also need a lubricant (to keep it supple). You might use wax-only recipes for display pieces, but we're talking about boots here. Also in dry conditions, using wax alone can actually make leather dry out and become brittle.

As a dressing for leather that isn't going to be wetted (i.e. not boots) then lanolin is a better starting point than either oils or waxes. It's the main ingredient for British Museum dressing

formatting link
you do want to use beeswax, then you're going to need a solvent. It's not applicable as is. For furniture polishes (posts passim) I use genuine turpentine, but for use on leather you need something like hexane. This is much too flammable to handle lightly! Really, not a good idea to have around the place, unless you absolutely need it.

So if you're a beekeeper, or Mary, then do your research and make a sophisticated beeswax-based dressing that's more than just beeswax. Otheriwse, if you're just trying to look after your boots, then just buy some.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

How would you "half-burn" AVPIN? The stuff is sheer angriness in a bottle!

The PR.9 (but not the other Canberras, they used cordite cartridges) used it too, as did the Lightning, Javelin and soem Hunters. I don't know why a Canberra would bother with it - it's foul stuff and has all sorts of problems, even worse than hydrazine. It was just about justifiable for a rapid reponse interceptor scramble in the '50s, but why for the PR.9s?

Sadly the shortage of AVPIN these days is likely to stop the privately- owned Lightnings from running again 8-(

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Maybe it was just the kerosesne... Mind you, Vulcans chucked about a third of their fuel out the back end unburned... Dirty ole things, but beautiful.

Habit? I know that if they were held out on dispersals for more than 10 minutes in the summer at Luqa, they had to stand down as it became a fire hazard!

I can't understand why ANYONE would want to fly one of them! Not known as the Frightening for nowt! That was one aircraft designed to be ornery, scary, noisy, and not as much use as it should have been.

Reply to
Kate XXXXXX

performance,

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

very interesting - as an ex-commando Royal engineer, ex Royal Green Jacket, ex Mountaineer, and ex Country Sports enthusiast, it's the FIRST time in (say) 40 years) I have EVER heard this. is this a crab thing? 'Cos I have never heard of anyone else using it....

Reply to
Gordon

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.