Actually a long time lurker. And I do like Shooey. True footwear enthusiast unlike some at other forums that just buys into hypes and low quality items.

^isshinryu101 I had a look at your site. That is quite an impressive piece of work.

Have you ever visited the Northampton shoe museum? They have competition shoes that craftsmen made to display their skills in days of yore. It is a great little collection, which is largely under appreciated.

Also, ancient man had no use for "glove soft leather", "hand made patina" and many other aspects of today's high-end footwear leather that we now covet.  The stuff we use today is more fragile... the stock we breed for and pick is more fragile, the processing we perform on it makes it even more fragile... in the name of style, fashion & beauty.  This is much different to care for than raw hides that were turned into coverings against the elements in a life or death struggle for survival.

Years ago when I was a slightly younger lad on the farm we, and others, still had some old school stuff. Old mechanical machinery that used huge, long, wide, leather belts to drive pulleys. It was common to use mutton fat (sheep) to keep the leathers pliable over long periods, hard usage and often out in weather un protected. It worked well based on usage and observation.not scientific but widespread.

At one stage we had a draught horse, as well as a tractor or two, the horse leather of which there was much, these were on a working horse that pulled sledges etc, was kept in good nick flexible etc with dubbin and mutton fat.

As far as I remember no wax was used but in effect moisturisers were used to preserve working leather well.

Just an anecdote I know.

Anybody got any opinion on Mink Oil?