lovely new ankle boots from RAU ...

[Alex]

nice and brown:)

question is, what do I do about polishing them? just supple them up with lederfett or what?

[Hoffman Grink]

The Undiemeister himself soaks his in linseed oil!!!!! (or rather he has his HiWi Kotzinski do it for him!!!!)

[Jon Das Reich]

I use black dubbing you get from your average supermarket, if you rib it in properly it doesnt cover everything, dont forget to dubbing the soles also to help stop them drying out.
Dont forget natural wear darkens them down, ask Jack within our group how he got his boots like slippers.

[Alex]

black dubbin? a joke surely! -- I don't know what dubbin is and nor does most of germany even now.

I've been working them in with lederfett and natural polish. they still have a distinctly sandy colour but I guess with a bit of wear and attention they might look a bit more useful.

damn good boots! a few production issues and some bits that really shouldn't have passed QA but on the whole a good purchase. those things should last me till I retire!

someone pass me some more beeswax ...

[Jon Das Reich]

Dubbing its been around for donkeys years footie players used to use it to look after their boots. Youre telling me that they dont have Dubbing in Germany.
Alex im not joking tell me what wrong with using dubbing on your boots why pay a small fortune for some lederfett ( which is dubbing) when you can get dubbing from a supermarket for a quid that does the same thing.

I know jack worked in his garden in his to darken them down,b ut Jack had a pair of these proper boots be most of us as he got a cobbler to knock up some for him in Northampton way before RAU was selling them, but it didnt work out cost effective for him to produce them and sell them on.

[Alex]

ahhh! so dubbin=lederfett? didn't know that. I do know though that Lidl and Aldi (german supermarkets with stores around the UK) sell lederfett really cheaply, and what germans I speak to have never heard of dubbin.

but I am going for the late war finish, and am I right in saying that boots were not supposed to be black at that time?

As for wearing them in in the garden ... that is very dangerous territory as it will be difficult to avoid doing the gardening

[Jon Das Reich]

Hi Alex,

Black Dubbing doesnt blacked the boots like if you were using black shoe polish, its darkens the boots down slightly and protects the boots. One thing thou dubbing is suppose to rot the stitching but i havnt had any problems with my boots yet.

[Alex]

cheers for the info chaps!

[Schäfer]

Some of our old vets have told us that just one light coat of black went on the natural tan low boots at first. After that, lots of lederfett went on and that's how the proper cherry red/ brown effect was achieved.

Alex, you can buy dubbin very cheaply at Sainsbury's and most supermarkets. I remember as a school boy using dubbin on my football boots to keep them protected and supple.