Treat Your Boots Right
First of all, boots need dusting off after each wearing. Next, an adequate cleaning/conditioning/polishing job is a thorough, four-step process, rather than a slap-dash, hurried affair.

Wiping the dust and dirt from the boots after every wearing is the very simplest and one of the most essential boot care techniques - and the one most often neglected. Keep a wiping rag handy where you put your boots away. Or, after pulling off your socks at the end of the day, get into the habit of using these socks as boot wipers. Remove the dust from the tops as well as the feet, especially in the wrinkles and creases around the ankles. Dust creeps down into the tiniest pores of the leather. It acts like a file, sawing away at the inner fibers where it has penetrated. Wipe your boots after every wearing and you will extend their life considerably.

Many people have the mistaken notion that using just one kind of material like saddle soap, conditioner or polish will keep the leather in good shape. Not so.

It is a mistake to assume that saddle soap alone is all that boots need, regardless of their condition - dried out or recently soaked. Tales circulated by ex-cavalry officers still knock around, "Use saddle soap generously and keep the life in your leather". Some people leave it at that.

Saddle soap is like face soap. You use it to wash the dirt out. Then you must remove the soap. Saddle soap, like face soap, has an alkaline quality. You would never think of leaving soap suds on your face to dry. Neither should you leave saddle soap to dry on the surface of your boots. It will burn the leather if you do. Saddle soap is fine for its purpose, which is to clean out mud and grime which has penetrated into the grain.

From the book, A Lifetime with Boots, by Sam Lucchese.

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