Dubarry Galway Boots Restoration

Hello all and welcome back to another blog post!Some of you who followed my old instagram may remember I managed to get my hands on a pair of Dubarry Galway boots for free, how I can hear you asking? Well they were in appaling condition, the leather was cracked, had splits, the sole was coming away, they leaked and look very tatty. These boots admitidly were 15 years old and used as yard/riding boots daily, this is the image I saw of them from the facebook listing.

From the picture they didn't look to bad but once I got them there was alot more wrong with them as stated above but I was determined to make them useable boots again! I had never restored a pair of boots before but I was up for the challenge and those who know me personally will know once I get my mind onto something I am determind to complete it.

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So first of all I had a good examine of the boots, made a list of what needed repairing and then took to google see what I needed and how to repair them. Many youtube videos later and alot of googling I had a list of what to do and the steps. I then bowsed ebay and ordered what I needed.

Here were the cracks and splits on the boots

Along the toes they were cracked right through, along the side of one boot was a split and along the side of the other was a huge split the whole way through the boot and a the sole was coming away.

First of all I took them to the hose and gave them a good scrub down with fairy liquid to really clean them and remove all the dirt from the leather and also take away some of the smell. The following pictures were the outcome, apperance wise they didn't look to different but most certainly smelt better and no longer had horse crap all over them.

Next it was time to gave them a deep clean with leather genie cleaner which I use on all my boots from the Chameaus - Fairfax and they cleaned up lovely, the leather was actually a lot lighter then I thought and in fact it was dirt making them that dark, now i had realised this I wanted them a darker colour so I ordered some strip solution for the leather and some leather dye.

Now I wanted them darker in colour it was time to strip the leather back, doing further research I should be doing this anyway as It would allow the leather to be resealed and treated and all the cracks and splits can to be filled. This bit did scare me as the outcome was pretty drastic and they ended up looking a lot worse then when I got them but it was all part of the process I kept telling myself when deep inside I was worrying I had just destroyed an expensive pair of boots!

I left them over night to allow the glue to set and dry in place and seal the cracks and splits. Next was the scary part fileing off the excess glue but not to much so I was back to square one, once finished I was looking at them convinced I had completely spoilt them as you will see in the images below.

These were now the boots completley striped back with all the cracks and splits sealed up. Next in the process it was time to start dying the leather the right colours again, these are not perfect to the original the the closest I could find and they do get darker over time. I did the toe, smaller strips and top first with the dark brown/black colour and was shocked who they came out so felt a little bit of faith restored!

I left these to dry over night and was happy with the colour, using masking tape I covered these points as it was then time to dye the middle sections I started using a netural dye to bring back the original leather colour and left them over night again but i wasn't happy with the colour and wanted them darker.

I took a risk and applied the darker colour almost black dye to try and reach a darker colour rather then building the layers up and thankfully it paid off and this was the final colour I was happy with.

I then let them dry over night before adding a layer of vaseline to add a water resistan layer back to them. Once the vaseline was absorbed into the leather I used my leather genie Balsam to finish them of to treat and soften the leather after all the work on it. i was so pleased with how they looked! They look a little shiney in the images but this will sink in and they go back matte.

All the splits and cracks filled and coloured!

There first outing was to do the Chicken with me and then down to the forde and they are not completley water proof as my big toe got slightly damp but im rather imprssed giving the fact they were so split and leaked so your feet were in puddles.

Thank you all for reading I hope you have enjoyed and agree I am pretty impressed how they turned out!

Talk again soon

Caitlin, The Norfolk Equestrian x

Instagram & Facebook @thenorfolkequestrian