Bro it's a spreadsheet. And White's don't last any longer than Georgias. If you can get 2 years out of a pr of daily driver loggers, you were real good about taking care of them. If you only wear them for fire season, by the time you put them on for Season 3 you feet have changed and they'll tear you up until you get another pair.
Back in my heavy fireline days I had two pair, rotated as close to daily as possible. That really helped them last. I don’t recall my feet changing much, though I sent one new pair back for some adjustments.
To sort of stay on topic, I used a pocket watch for a long time on fires to avoid dirt and damage to the watch. Does Rolex make a pocket watch, or Omega?
Gotta wind it and get your own chain and Phi Beta Kappa fob, but that's a real Swiss name watch right there
$749
Heh, I wasn’t a logger. But I knew some hotshots and jumpers had 2 pair - long term folks. But they didn’t wear caulks.
That came in handy when you sent a pair to get rebuilt. I forgot to mention rebuilding boots, I don’t think Georgia does that.
I read somewhere that back in the day some loggers, probably in the PNW of SE AK, would fill their boots with water at night to keep them soft. I’d be surprised if those boots lasted over a year.
Think they all wear Viking now, given how much of a pita leather boots can be in country that gets 260 inches of rain a year before it starts snowing. But I have no notion of "PNW SE AK", so I could just be red winging it.
And no I don't think Viking or Georgia will joyously re-handcraft your boots for a nominal fee plus shipping. But considering you can buy 5 pr of Georgias or Vikings for the price of 1 pr of corked Whites or Nick's and get 90% of the service life, and you can go online to Ray's or 6th Avenue Outfitters and have a brand new pair of Vikings in your size shipped to Coffman Cove in 3 days... The economics of bespoke boots handcrafted to work in dry ponderosa or redwood country is questionable.
Well, ^that’s the country of most all of my work, so there’s that. I bought my first pair of White’s in 1975 for western fire so that’s how I’ve rolled. I always liked the fit of my bespoke White’s.
I’ve never worked for any amount of time in truly wet/steep conditions. That’s interesting about Georgia boots - admittedly I’ve never paid any attention to them or Vikings.
Well, a 10 day guided Dall's sheep hunt in the Brooks or Alaska Range is gonna set you back about $25Gs in outfitter fees, plus you need a rifle rig you can schlep up mountains and down every day for 10 days straight [start at $2.5k], some $2500 Czech binoculars [your guide will pack the spotting scope and tripod, and your own tech backpacking and snivel gear [which you'll also have to schlep/wear some if not all days], and you own airfare to a place where your guide can pick you up in his Super Cub or Maule. Oh yeah, 10-20% tip if you don't score a ram, at least double that when you do, the sky being the limit.
Dall's sheep live way up high in the puña, being in shape to run up those mountains with all your food and gear takes a year-round commitment if you're over 35, which most ppl who can afford it are. Unfortunately, owning a sawmill or avionics company is poor preparation in and of itself, and only about 1/4 are still interested in hunting after Day 3, having somehow contrived to injure themselves...
But they're not all that rough. for $65-$80Gs plus most of the above costs plus a whole host of fees you can fly to Pakistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan to hunt urial, markhor, ibex, sheep...
Last edited by highangle; 07-16-2022 at 02:43 PM.
never had leahter boots but IME the vikings with bamas or heavy wool socks are comfy/ waterproof & work right off the shelf cuz the socks take up all the slop in fit
A forster/scientist type told me if you wear caulk boots in salt water jumping out of crew boats the caulks will freeze to the soles so swap em out steel calks for cermaic caulks whne new cuz the ceramic will last forever
Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
Highanger was deep dicking Menzbier Marmot, no need for Velcro
there is a real boot maker in Nelson BC
I sure liked caulks for staying upright on cut blocks but I don't think you are allowed to wear Caulks in a hell-of-a-copter or any aircraft
I sure didnt wear wear mine in my or my buddies trucks but we wore them in the ski hill side-by-side
filling boots with water makes no sense to me
Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
I get the softening of leather boots part and i could see it maybe once initialy to get the leather to conform to the feet and then dry em / grease up with a preservative, but I can't see anyone actualy wanting to wear wet boots cuz that would be uncomfortable and fuck up the feet
maybe there was no way to dry the gear we stayed in fallers accomadation on a surf trip to the wet coast and they were just a couple of wet musty molding garden sheds in a P-lot but they were dryer than a tent
recently i was in a modern workcamp for few nights the locker room trailer had the heat cranked up to dry everything, they also had workout rooms/ Yoga classes/ no drugs/ no booze ... definatley not as tough
Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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