Quote Originally Posted by Tobus View Post
I was having this conversation a few months ago with some very knowledgeable people as I was trying to decide on some ammo boots. While traditional finished leather, sealed at the seams with melted wax and polished all over the surface with wax, will provide plenty of waterproofing, the brown rough-out leather boots were also treated by soldiers to have equal protection. It involved brushing in "shoe grease" to the leather tops, over and over again, whilst breaking them in. The end result was likely a softer and more pliable boot with the leather empregnated with grease. Scuffs and scrapes would not be as much of a concern with this method as a boot that's only treated on the outer surface with wax. In a wartime environment, nobody is going to keep trying to repair lost wax protection on a topcoat when the boot gets gouged.

Of course, the regiments eventually did away with puttees altogether, as they were mostly useless for keeping water out of one's boots once they get saturated.

At any rate, I still haven't worn my ammo boots enough to break them in. Mine are more modern era parade boots with a high polish and super-chunky soles. I wear them with the later ankle puttees (shorter than WWI versions) and plain khaki hose tops. I'm told these boots will become really comfortable at some point, but I haven't found it yet! The hobnailed soled are not conducive to everyday wear.

Tobus,
Any idea what they meant by "shoe grease"? The only thing that comes to mind is Dubbin.