leather shoe resuscitation

[artificer]

Hmm... both my wife and I have used it to great effect on old saddles, without ill effect. As you may recall, she builds and repairs saddles for a living. Any time she gets one in to repair, it first has to be thoroughly cleaned (including partially dismantling it). Having seen the pictures of the shoes in question, they actually look pretty good compared to some of the old saddles I've seen her take on.

YMMV, of course, but saddle soap has never been a problem for us on old dried-out and abused saddles. Murphy's Oil Soap, by the way, is essentially the same thing as saddle soap, and is easily obtainable at the local grocery store, without having to make a trip to a leather shop.

I don't think saddle soap will remove old wax, though. I can't say, since western saddles generally aren't waxed.

This is where a true 'Shoe guy' would be really useful.

Is that advisable on old, fragile, dried out leather? I would think that vigorous rubbing with a coarse cloth might actually risk damage.

If they were 'alligatored' I wouldn't recommend it, but his pair only shows a slight bit of cracking along the top of the toe/flex area. As long as he's careful not to snag the crack, everything else should be just fine.