In preparation for eventually returning to events I am starting to make repairs and such to our gear. One thing that has been sorely neglected for the last few years is our shoes. Years of dirt, mud, sand, sun, rain, etc has left them dry and stiff.

While I don’t have any specific documentation for this I used a mixture of approximately 1/3 beeswax (from Mind Your Beeswax) and 2/3 tallow (from Black Sope) to create a waterproofing leather conditioner.

Here are the steps I took:

• Wipe shoes down with warm water while beeswax and tallow melted on the wood stove
• Apply melted tallow while beeswax continues to melt
• Apply combined mixture, rubbing in well
• Let sit overnight then polish with a soft cloth

It isn’t anything fancy but our feet will be dry and it adds life to our leather goods.