Please recommend a treatment for full grain leather walking boots

[Bonefish Blues]

No, no, no. I get a Brazilian to wax me. Name is Carlos.

Ah Carlos Wangtwango, good lad Carlos.

 

[wafter]

A subject depressingly familiar; the mental burden of which hopefully eased slightly by helping you avoid making the same mistake!

I've damaged my cherished, not-cheap, otherwise cossetted walking boots by exclusively using wax (Grainger's G-wax, FWIW). While perhaps waterproofing, this pretty hard wax / polish barely-if-at-all penetrated, allowing the leather to dry out, harden and eventually crack in areas of high flex

Since recognising this problem I've treated the boots with the Nikwax treatment (forget exactly what it's called) and Kiwi dubbin - both of which have made the leather very noticeably softer and more pliable. This has also made the boots significantly more comfortable..

From this experience I'd suggest that the use of conditioners (which are typically thin, mobile liquids or pastes that soak into the boot pretty quickly) should absolutely be prioritised over purely waterproofing waxes and polishes.

I did go down the conditioning rabbit hole with respect to a leather coat I have; the upshot seemingly being that all treatments degrade the leather to a small extent, however better to have a slowly degrading, decades-old item that's still supple and useable, versus something that's hard, brittle and cracked after a few years.

Mink oil seems to be near-universally considered to be the "best" leather treatment, however carries ethical baggage so personally I'd continue to go with either of the products mentioned above.

 

[presta]

I never managed to get anything to penetrate the leather, and my boots used to crack along the creases, but I settled on Liquid Nikwax just because it was easier to put on.

 

[grldtnr]

I never managed to get anything to penetrate the leather, and my boots used to crack along the creases, but I settled on Liquid Nikwax just because it was easier to put on.

,i use a product called Renapur Leather Balsam, use it on all my leathering needs.
Renapur Ltd of West Sussex, if it's still going, there's Beeswax in there.
Bought a tub yrs ago at a boat show , does a good job, but whether it can help the OP and his boots, that's open to question.

 

[grldtnr]

Hmm, they've been waxed many, many times but have had some wet and muddy heavy use and are bone dry, ie water will not bead on them.

If bone dry, presumably they are stiff, in which case it means an oil, i ess always told only use animal fats on leather, same goes as an oil i guess, Neatsfoot is used on leather, but i font know what that is!
What ever,sparingly use an animal oil then wax with the aforesaid Renapur , I suppose beeswax wouldn't do harm, as bees are loosely animals.
Anything Equestrian ought to ok as well.

 

[Randomnerd]

Once clean and dry, I condition my work boots with a mix of beeswax,.raw linseed oil and a splash of turpentine.
Out in all weathers, and in unfavourable conditions - mud, stone dust etc - and I get about two years out of a pair this way. That doubles their lifespan untreated.
I choose only unlined boots without waterproof membranes.

 

[PedalCat]

Thanks everybody. Re the old, dry boots, I've experimented on one of them with ordinary moisturiser and so far the result is looking pretty good.
Re the beautiful new boots, I've bought some leather conditioner, which, on my fingertips, feels very similar to the moisturiser.....