Proper leather shoes

Sounds good, thanks.

If you have the tops of the boots under your trouser leg you can get away with wearing them like a dress shoe.

I wear mine in the office

I managed to get some Church's Graftons in a Charity shop near my Mum's (Southport) for £50. I'm sure they had been worn once by the previous owner and given up on due to the hideous pain breaking them in caused me. They are now fairly comfortable, so I hope to keep hold of them for a long time.

My only issue is the section of leather at the heel on the inside keeps coming loose. What's the best way to secure this?

Which section? Inside or out? A small amount of contact adhesive is your friend for almost all loose leather, just make sure it's free of grease/oil

Bit of an Autumn sesh with the brushes....

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Mink oil ordered. Wore them to work for the first time since new soles, took a little getting used to but by the end of the day I was totally sole'ed (geddit?!?) will not be using silly red wing sole made of cheese again.

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Nice chode.

That's what she said etc...

Eiffel tower!

Don't forget to scrub them down before applying the oil. Try remove all the crap that's accumulated on the surface so you have a good consistent application.

More vintage 'made in Italy' tat.

Got these in Penne for 20€ new old stock, last pair in a cobbler's window. (The cobbler is the father of the shoe shop where the brown calf casual oxfords came from).

Condition isn't great from storage and at EU44 they felt a bit too loose (but 43 is always too tight, damn wide feet). Stuck some buffalo leather along the heel - gf had some samples from a leather convention so quite a luxury piece of skin to waste.

Will probably condition them again and stick down anything with contact adhesive that feels wobbly. Might use some more leather to line them, over/instead of the textile.

Fell in love with the woven leather, so old and grandpa.

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Don't forget to scrub them down before applying the oil.

This.

If you don't have saddle soap (which is a good thing to have imo) then you can use hand soap* - the extra moisturising stuff not antibacterial. Because it doesn't have the same oils, you should dilute it - a good squirt in a small mixing bowl of warm water.

Then just work in with a regular kitchen sponge making suds.
Rinse.
Repeat once more (because yours look like they need it).
Towel dry.
Stuff with newspaper.
Very light application of mink oil.
Leave to dry properly in a normal indoor temperature.
Apply proper / more liberal application of mink oil.

*people will say you can't because of the scents, wrong oils, etc. but you can. I probably wouldn't use it on smart work/dress shoes but I've used this plus olive oil on my bike leathers and they are fine.

You can also go over to the Body Shop, who sell amazing everything, and buy the bars of olive soap (usually on offer like 3 for 2) and use that. It's also excellent for washing your hands from bike grease and shoe polish.

Dubbin is going to give you a waxy finish, balsam is likely a bit more gloss.

Thanks!

I got some balsam so will start with that. They had a bit of wet weather in Newcastle over the weekend without dying, so did the trick.

Looking at their list of ingredients, Wonder Balsam is probably a more upmarket choice. Dubbin was originally pretty much animal fat, so it would fill the pores of the leather (where water may be absorbed) with something not dissimilar to when the animal is alive and clog the pores to avoid water absorption. But as a result it 'can' rot textile like thread used to make the shoe.

That balsam is full of good stuff like beeswax, so your shoes will probably be fine.

Blurry, the only way to wear monkstraps.

Cestola like the nice tan pair. Picked up for a bargain, and predate the fashion trend, certainly some years old. Found them when shopping for a pair for the gf's brother for his birthday.

Will post a photo after polishing, but found him a very old NOS pair of Regard ('est 1972') dark tan captoed derby not dissimilar to the Cestola.

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just got charcoal grey moc toe redwings, I use the redwing oil on my brown chukkas but am wondering if it will darken the leather on the grey ones and they'll end up black, which isn't what I want, any product recommendations?

Very unlikely they go black-black but oil will certainly darken any leather to a degree. No neutral polish available??

These look just the ticket for a daily office shoe; with a glasgow winter in mind.

https://www.loake.co.uk/262.html

Ooh. Nice.
For wet weather I've been rocking Swims galoshes in black, over my leather soled Oxfords, I have to say I'm really happy with them.

Been struggling to find a good Galosh. Also struggling with the thought of actually needing a pair as the weather changes.

Today on a fleamarket I saw some very curious things, still in their box, looks like from the 30s. A pair of straps (with a toe-strap type pull gripper over the dorsum/laces area) that attach a row of slightly sprung snow spikes to your instep gap between sole and heel. They looked like the sort of thing @coppiThat might like so I bought them for him. Maybe he will post us a pic!

In Venice this weekend and found these puppies... fell for them in a big way, sadly the cordwainer will only hand make to order... her prices start from 4000e...

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Exquisite