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Mk III Combat Boots: Use, Maintenance & Other Stuff.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dessert Fox
  • Start date Start date
A few other little thoughts...

Always make sure your boots are dry before polishing them. Any salt disolved into the liquid will crystallize after and ruin your new shine.

If you want a longer lasting shine, take a hair dryer, and blow hot air over a pair of freshly shined boots... your shine will disapear... what's happening is the polish is melting and penetrating deeper into the boot, provides a better base for your next shine, and provides more strength to the leather.

Only use small amount of polish at a time... many light layers are better then one thick layer.
 
Boot maintenance in the Australian Army: Thre is none. Just look at em  thats about it. No pollishing, no blackening, no nothing. I guess air em out from time to time, and if in grn, keep the mud off em, thats about it.

Upon my first posting to 103 Fd Wksp Leichhardt, NSW, Mar 95, my first words (in my mind) upon seing the members of my new platoon were "find an iron, get a haircut, and pollish those boots'. I said nothing of course.

A good friends of mine (PPCLI) after showing him some pics of us in the field wanted to keep some to show his RSM in disbelief. In one group pic of say 60 or 70 of us there was no uniformity at all.

some with webbing, some with out
ones with webbing were all different configurations or after market stuff
some with hats on some with out
ones with hats on, either had gr2 slouches, kepis, short and wide brim giggle hats
some with AUSCAM and tshirt on, some not, some in full AUSCAMs
some with khaki overalls on, some not
some in khaki shorts some not
some with green boots, some with tan boots, some with brown boots, some with black boots

The one common denominator was we all had our F88 Austeyr rifles.

I am sure my friends RSM  :o nearly blew an o ring when he seen those pics.


Cheers,
;D
Wes
 
My god...

I know it's not the clothes that make the soldier... but wow...

I'm assuming they tidy up for parades and such?

Heck, I love having the opportunity to spit shine my combat boots... nothing tops off the image of a man in uniform like big shiny black boots.

And to the original poster, if you're looking to buy a pair of combat boots, there are better boots on the market then the Canadian combat boot (Not that it's not perfectly useable, but there are much better boots out there).
 
I've been breaking in my combat boots a bit, hiking with the ruck on with weights in it and stuff.. but I haven't had boot polish. Will continueing to do so until I have the polish damage the boot at all or can i clean it off and start next weekend when I plan on doing my extra kit shopping spree (and pick up polish, applicator, cloth and scrubber)?

Thanks!
 
Do you think spit shining combat boots is really worth it due to the bubbly surface?  I generally put on a coat of Parade Gloss, wait about half an hour,
bush shine it quickly, add a coat of Neutral, wait another half an hour, and brush shine it with a little TLC on the toe.  I get a nice lustre.  Usually I don't spend
more than 6 mintues total.  I'll try the hair dryer technique this weekend.
 
I assume we aren't supplied with any "shoe maintenance" equipment? (specific brushes, polish etc) if this is the case... what should i go buy to prepare for summer BMQ?
 
Bert said:
Do you think spit shining combat boots is really worth it due to the bubbly surface?   I generally put on a coat of Parade Gloss, wait about half an hour,
bush shine it quickly, add a coat of Neutral, wait another half an hour, and brush shine it with a little TLC on the toe.   I get a nice lustre.   Usually I don't spend
more than 6 mintues total.   I'll try the hair dryer technique this weekend.

If you do it right, the "bubbly" surface shouldn't matter, as you're never looking for a mirror shine on your combat boots, just a bit of extra gloss, and a harder shine that lasts longer. If you really know what you're doing, you can make the bubbly surface permenantly flat (I'm not going to explain this, as you can easily ruin your boots in the process), though the bumpy surface eventually turns more or less flat on it's own anyway.

A proper spit shine on your combat boots can give you a shine that lasts pretty much for ever in Garrison, with occasional light touch ups. On the other hand, it can also get you chewed out by your sergeant-major, as you're not really supposed to spit shine them. Excessively shiny combat boots are not tactically sound, they reflect light. You can usually tell how much field time somone puts in by how shiny their boots are.

Here's my exact process for doing my boots after a particularly beating exercise...

First, rinse them inside and out, scrub the outside a little with a stiff plastic brush to begin cleaning away salt. Let them dry. If you don't need your boots again right away, dry brush them with a boot brush to clean away the bulk of any salt that came out of the leather, then rinse them again, scrub them again with a stiff plastic brush. Again, let dry.

Now you'll probably note that with the polish worn away, the leather underneath may be a bit grey. The military used to issue a black dye, I don't know if they still do, I keep forgetting to ask. I've got a bottle of excellent dye from a local shoe maker, cost me $5, but I have yet to use a fraction of it, I wouldn't be surprised if this stuff lasts me forever. Daub a bit of the dye into the grey areas with a Q-tip. You don't really need to worry about the entire boot, just the areas that look grey. (The necessity of the dye is debatable. On the one hand, the boots are polished regularly, so you'll never need to worry about the grey in garrison. On the other hand, when in the field, my boots still look black, even after the polish wears away).

Wait a few minutes for the dye to set, then coat the boots in liquid silicone (Again, the army used to issue this stuff, I keep forgetting to ask if they still do). The spray stuff works great. Let this set for a few hours minimum.

Next, coat the boots in a moderate layer of polish, and blow a hair dryer at them until the polish melts into the leather. If the polish melts in almost instantly, repeat this step again, and again, until it takes more then a few seconds for the polish to melt into the leather. (The hair dryer trick also works great for other things involving leather. Get a can of "Dubbin", smear it over the leather on   your combat gloves and arctic mitts and then blow hot air at them until the Dubbin melts in, improves the water resistance without leaving the gloves greasy as a result)

After this, just follow a normal boot polishing routine. Light coat of polish, and brush shine. Maybe spit shine the toe caps for durability, and then put a light brush shine over the spit shine so you don't get in trouble for having spit shined combat boots.

Some people will tell you that this is way too much fusssing over boots, I'm just a bit anal about my boots, follow these steps though and you will always have great looking boots.

Only other thought I'd like to add is on Parade gloss. This stuff is great as a final coat, in a very small quantity, but if it's all you use, it has a habit of cracking, from what I understand, it's harder then normal polish or somthing. And don't even bother with that "Honour Gaurd" instant shine stuff... ignoring for the moment that it flakes off within about five minutes of putting your boots on (If it lasts that long), it's far to shiny for combat boots anyway.

To drebk, no, you're not supplied with boot maintence supplies (Well, you are, but for the Goretex boots, as they require special polish). You'll need a can of Kiwi polish (There are all sorts of shoe polishes, but Kiwi is the best, the others just don't cut it. If you absolutely can't find Kiwi, Tana is probably the best of the alternatives, though still not Kiwi), an applicator brush, and a buffing brush. All these things can be found pretty much anywhere shoes are sold.
 
thanks alot -Just a Sig Op-
really appreciate it! you guys are so helpful!
 
Helpful nothing... I'm sick so I'm bored as a result... you'll notice I've been making posts all day long ;)
 
boot polish sucks even though we all use it. boot polish is wax this brakesdown the leather in the boot.  some of that boot blackner realy works well, although a little messy. not even sure if you can get it now. as for water profing your boots well use silcone. used to use a can of silicone on my boots every few months. this worked all right but these boots are not made to be 100% water proof only resistant. get a pair of gortex socks that fit right and wear them. as for shining your boot umm well sounds like a garrison thing. as long as you keep them black you should have few problems. i use to use a boot brush at the end of the day to brush off the dirt from the days use. another thing that works is the boot paste for the new gortex its not wax so it treats the leather. enough about this its only a pair of boots ohh wait a minute a soldiers most important weapon is their feet and boots. cant fight very well if you cant manouver well.
 
The polish breaks down the leather? Where'd you hear that?
 
Having worn several varities of leather boots over the years, the things that breakdown the leather the most are improper care or lack of care, age and ill-fitting boots.

Nothing worse than having the leather on a brand new pair of boots severly split within a year....
 
I realise this isn't quite military related, but it's still about Kit, and I turn here because I know the knowledge has to be here.

I'm looking for a good pair of boots for hiking. I've always gotten by with sneakers or regular walking shoes/etc for the hikes I've done, but now my buddies and I are looking into more serious backcountry hiking. I've done wonderful ruck marches in my Mk IIIs, but would prefer something a tad bit nicer on my feet for my civvie hiking. (I don't have a foot chit, so these would be for non-mil use only)

Something 3 seasonish, mainly summer, but also to be used in the spring and fall. (I'm too busy skiing in the winter to do any hiking  ;)  )

I've heard many good things about Magnums (except the prices). Does anyone know a distributor in the Edmonton area? I'm not too keen on ordering boots online without trying them on.

Any other recomendations?
 
Where? Oh... boots. Darn... you had me all excited there for a second...
 
What is the best way to break in new boots?  I did some running in them but that just gave me nice big blisters on my heels.  I can barely put my shoes on now.  Anyway, I'm leaving for my BMQ soon and don't want more of these blisters popping up (ha ha, sorry) then because that would really suck.  Any suggestions?
 
Running? Ouch...

Best way to break them in is get them good and soaking in warm water (As in fill them with warm water), dump the water out, then wear them till they're more or less dry (In other words, all day).

And always remember to wear two pairs of socks inside the boots, for now the grey issue pair and a cotton sport sock will work fine.
 
Just a Sig Op said:
And always remember to wear two pairs of socks inside the boots, for now the grey issue pair and a cotton sport sock will work fine.

I tried several different kinds of socks to wear under my grey wool socks, but the cotton ones seem to work the best, they absorb more moisture (your feet stay a bit drier) than if you use the polypropylene socks (which don't really wick away moisture :- )

How long do the boots take to dry? I don't want to be stuck wearing wet boots all day, and will it really help a lot?
 
Hi there, I'd suggest you check out some of Danner's hiking selection. Meryl's are good as well. Check out Mountain Equipment Co-Op (www.mec.ca) for a good selection. Just make sure you pick a boot that fits the type of hiking you're doing and you'll be good to go.
 
Wear cotton socks under your boots if you want to seriously screw up your feet. Cotton absorbs moisture, true.... and then you've got a nice soggy sock that will srunch up and cause hot spots and blisters. What happens to your socks when you do a river/stream crossing, hmmmm? Poly pro is a softer material than cotton and so it will not abrade your feet, and it will wick away moisture from your feet without absorbing it (hence why many liner socks are made of poly-pro). The new CTS liner socks are the shit and make long marches mucho comfy. Avoid cotton socks like the plague.
 
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