Onderhoud SVC01 Boondocker

Is there a peak patina? Is there a point at which a leather is at its toastiest, most golden brown but yet not starting to darken and dull? Is there a point where the vamps have undulating fat tolls but are not yet marked by deep creases and valleys? I say yes. Working largely from home and with a 2 year old, I knew I was not going to put the most miles on my pair but, this being a patina competition and not a “most miles” competition, I knew I’d have a chance if I cultivated a . Onderhoud’s Rizky hooked me up, BIG TIME. I was lucky to not only catch his attention but also have him entertain a quest for a piece of Horween Unglazed Shell thick enough to confidently pursue an unstructured plain toe. He eventually scored the perfect hide all the way from England. I sent him over a pair of deadstock cats paws and a western Vibram 269. The boots came out better than I had imagined. The unglazed shell was an obvious patina machine right out the box, with my fingerprints starting to leave a mark immediately. It was tough to ignore this pair for 6 months waiting for the start of competition, but the day eventually came. My strategy with this pair was to keep them dry and condition them as least as possible. This is a pair I intend to wear for the rest of my life and my hope is to keep as much luster as possible. I wore them basically dry over the 6 month competition and conditioned them only once, lightly with Bick 4, about 2 months in when they started to get a bit ashy. I had one catastrophic event where my daughter dropped some greasy soy sauce on them but some heavy scrubbing tool the stain out to my satisfaction. The scrubbing did remove a lot of the patina from that specific area but a little conditioned and some brushing brought it back. My favorite part of this pair are definitely the rolls on the toe boxes. Unstructured anything is a risk and unstructured shell is an expensive risk… but these were a “jackpot” winner.