Owner Review - Sno-Seal
Roger Caffin

Product Information

Manufacturer:	Atsko Inc
Manufacturer URL:	www.atsko.com
Year of manufacture:	n/a
Net weight:	7 oz (22 g)
Cost:	US$5.50 (7 oz)
Container:	Round '8 fl oz' pot with screw lid
Review Date:	6-Jan-2004

 

Product description

This is one of those 'trade secrets' known to all experienced walkers and cross-country skiers, and many other outdoors people too I imagine. It claims to be just beeswax, but fairly obviously it must contain a few other more volatile ingredients as well - if only because pure beeswax is much harder than Sno-Seal. Its main use is preserving and waterproofing leather, especially boots, saddles, luggage, bags, coats, gloves and most anything else made of leather. That said, it has had other uses too.

The picture here shows two packages: an old pot (nearly empty) and a new tube. It is also available in a small sachet, but I have never bought it in that form.

 

Product Background

Leather is not engineered to make waterproof boots. It is the hide of an animal (if you didn't know already), and it has to do four things:

• Hold the animal's insides all together
• Protect the animal's insides from the outside world
• Stretch and flex
• Breathe

The first two requirements mean that it can at times be quite strong - good enough for boots and other things. The third means that things made of leather are usually far more comfortable to wear than things made of plastic - I have cross country ski boots in mind here. The fourth is a problem for us: anything which breathes can usually leak as well, at least once it passes on from its original owner. So leather is wonderful for cross country ski boots and mountaineering boots, but by itself you will get wet feet. In addition, once the original owner is no longer supporting it, leather can degrade over time if not 'looked after'.

One way of keeping leather supple is to keep it wet. This approximates what the original owner did of course, but unfortunately that was not quite what we had in mind for boots and so on. The purpose of keeping it wet is to reduce the internal friction between the fibres, and even to allow the fibres to retain some flexibility. Another way of looking after the fibres is to use another lubricant, and various oils have been marketed for this. Unfortunately, many of them give too much flexibility and allow the leather to stretch badly. Fortunately, in between fluid oils and dryness we have beeswax, and Sno-Seal.

Sno-Seal is a bit like boot polish, but much better. Boot polish does look after the leather a bit, but its main aim is to sit on the surface of the leather and keep a polish on it. Sno-Seal goes much further into the leather and does not really worry about the surface appearance. But it does a much better job of keeping the leather supple and, if applied in sufficient quantity, it also keeps the leather waterproof.

 

Product Use

Using Sno-Seal is simple. I get both it and the leather object nicely warm, and rub the Sno-Seal into the leather generously. In the process I usually get a bit on myself, but it is not noxious and does actually have a 'good' smell. It takes a bit of soap to wash it off afterwards. When this has been done many times the leather develops what can only be described as a deep glow. It will usually darken as well, so this must be borne in mind with fashion goods. If I want to be really fancy I can also apply standard boot polish every now and then to keep the surface appearance up. I have done this to my Scarpa XC ski boots for well over ten years now, and they still look wonderful.

The warmth bit should not be overdone: I leave my boots and the Sno-Seal in the sun on a hot day, or very gently warm them some distance from a fire to about the same temperature. Just warm to the touch is about right. It helps if the leather is moderately dry, but not bone dry in my opinion. I also use it on my pigskin 'Riggers' gloves which I use around the farm. Without Sno-Seal they may last for about 3 months before cracking and wearing out; with Sno-Seal they last for a few years. To put Sno-Seal on them I just keep rubbing my hands together like under a hot air hands drier.

I have found one catch for the unwary. Some modern surface finishes on leather seem to be rather impenetrable: I just can't get the Sno-Seal through the surface finish into the leather. I have to wait until the surface has had a bit of wear or abrasion - not much, just enough to break down the artificial barrier placed on the surface. The most extreme version of this was a layer of polyurethane applied over the leather: this was completely impenetrable. It made the boots look really great in the shop and really waterproof, but of course once in the field the plastic wore off and the leather leaked. I am not convinced this was a good idea, at least for someone concerned about the long-term maintenance of the leather.

To repeat: Sno-Seal is not expensive, so one can be generous in the amount applied. One can also apply an occasional dose of conventional boot polish to maintain the surface gloss: it doesn't hurt.

 

Addendum 2005

Both my wife and I had bought the same model of Scarpa XC boots at the same time many years ago. Last year my wife finally decided that the cold feet and pain and suffering meant that her feet had grown enough that her boots were now too small, and that she should buy a larger pair. So she bought a new pair, more or less the same as the old ones. My feet too have grown over the years, but I had bought mine a bit too big for me, and had added an extra footbed. After removing the extra footbed recently I find they are still a reasonable fit for me. The photo to the right shows my wife's new ones (left) and my old ones (right): not much difference, is there?

A sad fact of life is that our snow fields in Australia are not all that cold. By early afternoon under the Australian sun the snow can be wet on the surface. In fact, on one occasion when we were Spring touring we found ourselves almost water-skiing: it was a very hot day. This means that the snow which piles up around our boots can be wet. Normally our ski boots look after this.

This year my wife was most upset to find when we stopped to camp that she had wet socks. Outrage: this hadn't happened before. It wasn't helped by my announcing that I had dry socks. Then we realised that my boots had been regularly 'Sno-Sealed' for more than ten years, while hers were running mainly on the factory finish. Needless to say, I was given the appropriate instructions.

 

Other Benefits

Two benefits are obvious from the above: the leather is preserved and cracking is stopped, and the leather is made more waterproof. Oils can do this, but they can also allow the leather to stretch, which does not happen with Sno-Seal. Oils can also evaporate fairly quickly, which beeswax does not. They can also leach out and stain fabrics in contact with the leather, while Sno-Seal has never done this in my experience. Animal fats have been used (I am told), but they run the risk of becoming rancid in warm weather. Other waxes could be used I imagine, but beeswax seems to have particularly good flexible properties. Atsko, the makers of Sno-Seal, claim that it does not stop the leather from breathing. Well, that may be so for the first few years, but I suspect my XC ski boots have enough beeswax in them now that there won't be much breathability left. Not mind you that I am complaining: they continue to give very good service in our wet Australian snow fields, even surviving fording flooded rivers once.

 

Caveats

There are a couple of things to remember about Sno-Seal. They are not bad things, but it helps to be aware of them.

Using Sno-Seal on suede is going to make it a lot darker. It will also make it a lot more waterproof of course. So yes, I do sometimes use it on the split leather or suede found on some joggers and approach shoes, but the first one or two applications will really soak it up. For very light runners with chrome-tanned suede leather trim I usually don't bother: their life is too short and the chrome tanning process lasts long enough.

I did try to put Sno-Seal on some very new leather boots once, and failed completely. The boot manufacturer had put a polyurethane coating on the surface of the leather to give it increased water resistance. This worked: the Sno-Seal just wouldn't go in. This was not a problem: I saved the Sno-Seal until that PU layer has worn off.

Some footwear is made with a 'breathable' layer inside, ostensibly to stop your feet from getting wet. Materials used include Gore-Tex, Simpatex, XYZTex and so on. The experienced walker will realise three problems here. First of all, regardless of the claims of the manufacturers, most feet sweat too much and overload the 'breathable' layer from the inside. Feet still get wet. Secondly, there is a large hole at the top of the boot, and water can get in here - like when fording flooded rivers or walking in the rain. Thirdly, such a layer does nothing to protect and preserve the leather, so I still have to use something like Sno-Seal on the leather. What do you think happens to the 'breathable' layer when I have put the 10th layer of Sno-Seal on the boot? Right: the leather gets completely clogged up and any breathability fails. Atsko claim otherwise, but having seen how loaded the leather on my ski boots is, I don't believe them. My conclusion is that these 'breathable' layers are a pure marketing gimmick designed to allow the vendors to charge more. I place more faith in the Sno-Seal.

 

Other Uses

Sno-Seal really is mainly just a harmless beeswax. This means it can also be used for things like chapped hands, emergency lubrication, waterproofing repairs to gear in the field, cracked lips, binding heavy thread and so on. It also makes a fair finish for wooden articles instead of paint or varnish, especially if several coats are used. Quite a nice glow can be had from a nice bit of dark timber.

 

Summary

Likes	Dislikes
It works	Washing my hands afterwards
It's reliable
It's cheap

Would we keep using this?
We do. I dislike allowing good gear to fail, so I Sno-Seal my ski boots after every trip. I also carry some on longer trips for use during the trip.

 

Biographical information

Name:	Roger Caffin
Age:	58
Gender:	M
Height:	1.66 m (5' 5")
Weight:	63 kg (138 lb)
Email address:	r dot caffin at acm dot org
City, State, Country:	Sydney, NSW, Australia

Backpacking Background:

I started bushwalking (the Australian term) when I was about 14 yrs old, took up rock climbing and remote exploration walking at University, later on took up ski touring and canyoning. These days I do all my trips with just my wife. Our preferred walking trips in Australia are long ones: about a week in the general Blue Mts (east coast of Australia) and Snowy Mts (alpine) regions, and up to two months long in Europe and the UK. We favour fairly hard technical trips in remote country and prefer to travel fast and light. Our ski touring trips are usually 5-7 days long as well, with full packs and tents. The Australian ski fields are not very cold, so the snow is often wet. In between we still do fairly long day trips: it's a form of relaxation. Having discovered that 20 kg (44 lb) packs are no longer fun, we have become believers in ultra-lightweight walking. Typically we carry an ultra-lightweight tent (we need full insect proofing here), Therm-a-rest mattresses (for comfort), lightweight sleeping bags, lightweight packs, a lightweight butane/propane stove, light climbing rope (frequently used) and very light parkas. I would carry about 12-14 kg (26-31 lb) total for a week, my wife would carry a bit less (more when skiing of course).

I am also the maintainer of the Australian aus.bushwalking FAQ web site www.bushwalking.org.au/FAQ/.