Civies to Monty's Men: WW2 Ammo Boots - Repro vs Original

Here we will be comparing an original pair and a reproduction made by Soldier of Fortune.
As part of the Monty's Men adventure I've teamed up with Jake from the Jake Brown Collection. kzbin.info/door/ciD...
This series of videos will follow us through our preparations for next year's Monty's Men Trip which is considered the top in WW2 reenacting. We'll be covering preparations and getting our kit up to the exceptionally high standards required
Monty’s Men is a collective of individual living historians who are usually members of other groups. The group, albeit without a name, existed in 2002 but the first Monty’s Men ‘branded’ trip was in 2003 as a platoon of the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.
The ethos behind the Monty’s Men group is a fully immersive living history experience and, wherever possible, not compromising on accuracy. As such, the men were fed from compo rations to the same menus as the 1944 British infantrymen and there were little modern conveniences other than where modern safety standards required it. (Richard Fisher)

[@davidmoore6197]

My grandad and father told me that ammunition boots were issued with a pebble grain Finnish over the whole boot including the toe and heel. The toe and heel pen belong was smoothed down in a process they called boning and/or spooning. It involved melting hot boot polish or bees wax in to the toe cap and heel using the back of a hot spoon handle and rubbing until the pimples disappeared, this would eventually create a flat surface on which to start applying thin layers of spit and polish until you got a glass like shine. My grandfather used an old bone handled kitchen knife, he would use the blade to melt the polish in to the pimples then smooth with the bone handle, hence “boning”. My dad was an RAF boy entrant at Cosford in 1953 -1955. He was initially issued two pairs of boots, one for work and one for best. The work pair had to be kept to a high standard but only the toe cap and heel were requires to be smooth, however his best boots had to be smooth all over which took hours of work. He told me that his boots were not issued with studs, they were added after the boots were broken in; the best boots which had taken hours of work were all collected up and thrown in to a sack and then sent to the cobblers.

[@freqeist]

my dad taught me how to do that.

[@jamesmather2839]

Your new (repro) boot has a larger/longer toecap (note how it had creased) and larger heelcap. Units issued with the old style Ammo boots for ceremonial used to have to burn smooth the pimples with a hot spoon, and would then melt heelbow wax (beeswax+soot) into the leather, enabling the glasslike shine of bulling. They would also customarily have an extra layer of sole and heel added, ‘double tapped’) making them better for stamping! (The MoD spec was revised in 1995, and now uses smooth leather, reducing the work required. Troops (eg Guards) now melt in beeswax rather than heelbow, which is still available but much harder to find, and black boot polish, still using ‘magic circles’)

[@britishmuzzleloaders]

It would appear that those originals at 3:45 have pegged (vs hobnailed) soles. A manufacturing technique whereby many small bits of wire are driven into the sole to keep it together and provide for wear resistance.

[@kevinofishero]

Interesting.. So no hobnails at all when using this technique?

[@britishmuzzleloaders]

@@kevinofishero That's right,.... generally.... two distinct methods of manufacture. By another name the technique is called "billing"... here is a thread on the GWF.... www.greatwarforum.org/topic/227570-hobnail-b5s/

[@kevinofishero]

@@britishmuzzleloaders fascinating... Thanks for that. This hobby is insane. It just keeps getting better :-)

[@men5crumm]

@@kevinofishero i have a pair of '51 dated ammo boots, which have both a pegged sole and the pointier hobnails in 'em

[@Fanakapan222]

Close but no cigar :D Army boots were made by the Riveted Construction method. Thats where the threaded or ringshanked brass or steel wire is shot in and cut to length by machine to hold the uppers to the soles. Think of it as an even cheaper method than Blake or Mackay stitching, so no actual welt needs to be attached to hold the upper to the sole in either process. And its worth remembering that the prime factor of influence when it comes to adopting Army footwear is cheapness. The construction will be seen as a single row of metal heads around the perimeter of the boot, about an inch in from the edge of the sole. You end up with two layers of sole, a layer of upper, and the insole, sandwiched and riveted together by the process. The lots of little nails look on the soles are literally just that, lots of little nails to extend the life of the sole. The style would have been issue to trades such as drivers, where the manipulation of what were bare metal pedals could have been distinctly dodgy with hobnailed foot wear. Of course, were one lucky enough to have been in the Officers Mess back in the days when troops were iron shod, all bets are off. Officers would have been considered well padded enough to be able to get decent footwear, and afford the services of a decent shoe repair guy to re sole. :)

[@webtoedman]

The multiple holes are the result of "triple hobs" being fitted.

[@blindfredy6128]

The question begs to be asked, why are they called ammo boots.

[@andysanger7723]

Hi Great video how did you get on with the reproduction ammo 🤔

[@kevinofishero]

So far so good.. I’ve since posted an update video on these boots

[@MK-bx7ou]

Since it was mentioned in the video, what does the "L" designation mean in terms of ammo boot shoe sizes?

[@kevinofishero]

It means Large. Each size came in three sub sizes: Small, Medium and Large.

[@MK-bx7ou]

@@kevinofishero thank you! So, I wear a us size 14w, would the 13L fit me? If so, I've located a pair of 80s issued boots that are going to be purchased this week!

[@dannythorne9761]

Where do you buy. Them

[@ju1c328]

Soldier of fortune

[@zombis89fisto]

I am pretty sure the pebbled leather was goatskin because it does pebble quickly over time

[@andrewcombe8907]

Goat leather. In the UK?

[@ralphh.2200]

Those are fine reproductions. Outdoors only, no? Otherwise we'd ruin Mum's floors, right?