Howdy Leather Enthusiasts! Stampede is right around the corner for us Calgarians, and what a better way to celebrate by reminding our readers of the best methods and know-how of polishing and maintaining your cowboy boots. For one, you have to identify the type of leather you will be working with before taking the time to use products you’ve never used before in your life. There are many leather types, but for the purposes of consistent production selection, we would like to focus your attention on the most prominent leather types we have seen in Cowboy boots.
Generally, you’ll have your Cordovan, Reptile, Oiled Leather, Cow Leather and Synthetic Leather. Our team at Brillare has a tremendous amount of experience with all of the different types of leather mentioned previously, and we are more than happy to share what we have learnt working on them with the potential buyer.
Any of the mainstream leather types that we have mentioned so far will require the same beginner steps and maintenance operations. You can start by filling your shoes with shoe trees. We recommend Saphir Cedar Shoe trees for the optimal aroma. You want to fill your shoes with trees so that you can properly moisturize and polish every part of the leather without creases compromising your work. This is a great segway into the next step, in which you can moisturize the leather with the Jojoba-Oil based Saphir Creme Universelle lotion, or if you are looking for a higher and more penetrative shine, we also offer the higher-quality Mink-oil based Saphir Medaille d’Or Leather Conditioner and the Saphir Medaille d’Or Renovateur Renovating Cream Polish. Once you’ve moisturized the leather by applying it on a small area of an effective microfibre, you want to let it dry for a minute or two, and buff the leather out with an appropriate brush for your colour. Then, different leather types are to be polished and buffed out with the appropriate cream polishes.
Firstly, Cordovan leather comes in a specific Cordovan colour that can sometimes be misconstrued for Oxblood, although rest assured those are two different colours. This colour, which Saphir has a special category for labelled ‘#71 Cordovan’ is best polished and maintained with the appropriate Saphir Medaille d’Or Cordovan Cream Polish available on our website. Nevertheless, in certain cases you will see Cordovan leather of other colours, in which case we do offer Cordovan Cream polishes in Black, Fawn and Dark Brown. As well as a far more universal neutral.
Secondly, Saphir carries a potent Saphir Medaille d’Or Reptile Cream that is rare to come by, but does an effective job of polishing and buffing out Reptile leather when the right time comes to polish your crocodile boots. We know your reptile lovers are hard to come-by and treat your leather with the utmost care and attention it deserves, and hence we are happy to offer this product on our website and at our store. As for Oiled Leather types, these are highly concentrated oily surfaces that also have a dedicated Saphir Medaille d’Or Oiled Leather Cream Polish that penetrates deep into the skin and oils it up appropriately. We have many colours available, which include Black, Medium Brown and Dark Brown. And again, a neutral in case you are not sure of which shade suits you! Keep in mind that with any Neutral cream polish you can polish and buff out the leather, but you can not fill in the discoloration and any scuffs that may have risen.
Lastly, your Cow and Synthetic leather types have similar approaches to them which involve all the same steps mentioned previously but with the Saphir Medaille d’Or Pommadier Cream Polishes that are available in over twenty different colours. One point to note is that for the rare cowhide-made Vachetta leather enjoyers, the Saphir Medaille d’Or Nappa Cream has been professionally designed to moisturize and maintain Vachetta leather without compromising its character.
We hope that you have found this piece informative to your Cowboy Boot maintenance journey, and are looking forward to spray your hard day’s work on the boots with the Saphir Medaille d’Or Super Invulner as a finishing touch to protect the leather from scuffs, discoloration as well as rain.