Boots

apply polish???

i can’t see why those boots need “repairing” - worn during fieldcraft = for the outdoors. As such if they show evidence of being outdoors, am i surprised or bothered? no.

apply polish and sooner or later the leather will be buffed off and the polish will fill the gap. it will never disappear but i wouldn’t be looking for the expense or effort of a repair on what I see as “routine wear and tear”

I tried polish it worked a little but I guess I am just gonna have to live with it. (that was the first time wearing those boots dam it)

Fill it with polish until its smooth with the rest of the boot. Let it solidify over a week or so…then polish as nornal

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Agreed. Boots are are an item of workwear - as long as they’re servicable and looked after then they’re acceptable. Any pair used for their intended purpose will eventually pick up scratches, grazes and pits - just polish over and crack on.

Only thing I could suggest is if the ‘ridges’ of the scratch made by the bramble prevent polish smoothing, then use a very fine graded sand paper to smooth that down. Then apply polish as per @AlexCorbin suggestion.

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Parade shoe deep scratches I would repair with beeswax. Combat boots I don’t worry about it.

It is disappointing when you get a big scar on brand new boots, but as others have said - they’re working footwear… Try to not to worry about it.
Make sure you keep them polished as normal to care for the leather and they’ll be fine.

I took a chunk out of the toe of my Lowas on their first outing and whilst it still irritates me, it doesn’t affect their performance and they aren’t parade footwear so it’s not important.

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Thanks that makes me feel alot better.

Barbed wire took a huge gouge out of the toe of my brand new Altbergs during IOT way back when. I was gutted. But, once you’ve got that first scratch out of the way you’re more easy about throwing them around.

As long as the scratch hasn’t and won’t become a slice through the leather as a whole the integrity of the boot won’t be affected, so if you keep them clean it’s fine and dandy.

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It’s like owning guitars… The first dink in the lacquer is the worst.
I had a mate who used to bang every new guitar on the floor so that he was no longer worried about knocking it.

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Yeah my SG has a chunk missing out the headstock. I was heartbroken

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Not quite so anymore. The current high liability boot is the AKU Pilgrim FG GTX which has quite a lot of fabric and are probably lighter than the leather patrol boots.

Doh, just when I thought I’d come up with something fairly simple to tell the Cadets!

There is still an advantage to the patrol boots - cost. If you find the AKUs for under ÂŁ100 you have found a good deal.

Used to be fabric sides weren’t waterproof, too.

Then some bright spark had the idea of using Gore-tex… In boots.

True, my Patrol boots were cheaper than the Magnums I have for work.