Catskill Mountain Moccasins suggests that you store their leather boots hanging up, so that the leather can breathe and last longer. I have no idea the validity of this concept (that letting leather have more contact with air will lengthen its lifespan), but it doesn’t seem like a bad idea. The alternative is to let the boots sit in a clump on the ground, with the upper leather portion slumped over, and that does seem like it would at the very least add creases and unnecessary stress to the leather over time. Another plus to having a boot stand is that it’s now very easy to let them hang to dry when I re-oil them, or when they get damp from the rain.
To have a place to hang my boots without putting any stress on the leather, I made this very simple boot stand. It was incredibly easy to make from scrap wood I had lying around.
I took a piece of rattan that was too warped to be made into a decent SCA sword, and chopped it to be a little taller than my boots. Then I cut a scrap piece of wood large enough to balance the boots, about 5″ by 10″. I sunk long wood screws into the bottom of the wood and up into the rattan, with some wood glue for added support. Very easy, and very useful!
And a pretty close-up picture of my beauties. I still adore my boots made by Catskill. If you have leather gear, make sure you take good care of it! Building simple stands to let them breathe and hang without stress is one way to do so. ~Kell
