Hi. If any of you remember my post about metal strength, for safety boots, this is sort of like a followup.
If any of you have careers that involve wearing safety boots, I strongly suggest Matterhorn boots. I've bought about 15 different safety boots in my life, many of them claimed to be water proof. Some were leather, some were rubber, none of them were waterproof after a couple weeks even with heavy applications of silicone waterproofer. A couple months ago I got Matterhorn Nytek mining boots with gore-tex. Although they cost about twice as much as the best boots I previously owned, they are the first boots that are still 100% waterproof after 2 months. They contain no animal products. The Nytek is a leather alternative.. with leather boots, if glue drips on them and I pick it off later, leather comes off with the glue. When I pick dried glue glue off nytek, the nytek is undamaged. These particular boots also have an armadillo metatarsal guard to protect the top of the foot, while being flexable enough to squat down and bend the boot. I did have to replace the laces.. the best laces are kevlar but kevlar is abrasive and will wear out the lace eyelets, so I went with leather laces and coated them with dubbin grease (beeswax and animal oils). Many of Matterhorn boots also have a kevlar liner to protect the foot against objects that cut threw the outer layers. I suggest going with a half size larger than your normal tennis shoes, to allow space for insole inserts and thick socks which make boots more comfortable. Gore has fairly strict standards on who can buy their fabrics, and use their 'gore-tex' trademark. Garments with the 'gore-tex' trademark must be tested by a third-party to prove the garment will remain waterproof during normal use. Most gore-tex garments come with a warranty. My feet are never damp from perspiration because of the gore-tex liner in the boots. I would also like to note that I found that the U.S.A. has the best safety standards for boots. Canadian, European, and Australian standards use less energy to test toe cap strength. I should also mention that the Mythbusters TV show tested steel toed boots, and the boots failed 1000 pounds over the standards... at 6000 pounds. Matterhorn boots are made in the USA. After over 100 hours of research, if I were to make my own boots, the only way I could improve these matterhorn mining boots is with a turtleskin(tm) liner over the gore-tex (to resist needle punctures), and a beryllium-nickel alloy toe cap. But as they are, they're the best boots available. Robert -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-chat FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
