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mother of josh, richard, and mutt. lover of books, yarn, and the quiet places. spinner, knitter, kayaker, survivor, vandweller, warrior.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

one for the fan club

steger apache moccasins. ankle high moosehide with long laces to wrap around your ankles to adjust the support. not insulated, so cool for summer. warm with wool socks in all but the coldest weather. light and silent. great stalking shoes. those boys never hear me coming, spear in hand......

5 comments:

Johnny said...

Where is the link to your fan club
sign up page? :-)

I know Tara is in the club, I heard you get a pair of socks for joining.

Anonymous said...

If they're hand-knitted socks I'm in too 8-)

twokniveskatie said...

"mumble cackle mumble" says kate, knitting furiously....

Anonymous said...

hi there, i've been reading your blog ever since tara mentioned it at hobostripper. i'm enjoying your posts:)

i've got a question:
are your moccasins and mukluks relatively new? i'm wondering if they look like they are in such good condition because you just got them or because they are durable? i guess my point is that since they are expensive, i want to know if they last a long time. also, since i'm in minnesota, i'm wondering what the snow does to the moosehide- do they just dry off near the wood stove or does it slowly damage them?
thanks!!

twokniveskatie said...

hey, balsamfir! thanks for coming by!

the apache mocs are a couple years old. they get worn frequently, but never under the stress i put my muks through. like i don't wear them in mud or rain, although they do get wet from the dew often. this is my second pair of apaches, i gifted the first pair to a friend at rendezvous. i think they would be hard to wear out.

the mukluks are also a couple years old now, but they get worn hard, and put away wet. they have seen about every kind of abuse possible. winters here in the less snowy northeast can be hard on them, they are meant for snow, not pavement. salt and oils and gas, like you would encountering at the gas pumps, can be harsh on them. another reason to avoid civilization :-) still, they persevere. after walking on road salt, i try to clean the bottoms with snow at the end of the day.

i only wore out 1 pair of mukluks, the same as the one's i have now, except they were knee high instead of calf-high. and i wore them 9 or 10 years. so when you average it out, they are a bargain in my book. and the only part that wore out was the sole, and i wish i had repaired them with seam sealer or something, instead of giving them away.

i choose not to waterseal my muks. i would rather retain maximum breathability to avoid sweaty feet. the moosehide will get wet, but my feet never get cold because of the wool liners. i simply wear them dry in the house, nothing special needed. they are near the stove at night due to the cot being next to the stove, but the leather remains supple and soft.

one thing to be careful of is now there are two different liners. make sure before buying which ones you are getting. i got a pair of the blanket topped navajo, but they had a synthetic liner that was foot specific (not reversible) that i did not care for.