Verdigris on boots - solution?
Hey all.
A couple of my (well worn) Red Wings have some verdigris on the eyelets, from where the metal has oxidised - pic attached of one , although I think my other pair is a bit worse.
Any ideas on the best way to get rid of it? I tried before with a toothbrush/toothpick combo but I found the process really maddening 😭
Is there any quick fix solution which won’t damage the leather?
Or if not, a favoured technique to make it less tedious?
I might be overthinking this, but would be nice to have them as clean as possible - I also got a bit thrown off by Wikipedia suggesting it is “somewhat” (?) poisonous
(Although I don’t plan to eat my boots)
7 Replies
What were you using on the toothbrush? Alcohol?
I tried the toothbrush method a good while back (maybe a year ago - this has built up since due to subsequent wear and exposure to elements) but it was with a bit of baking soda and water.
It worked somewhat.
But I just found the whole process pretty awful 😂
Yeah I wonder if there’s something that would eat just the oxidation
Like how you can clean a penny with coke haha
A solution like that would be the dream 😂…I’m just wary of anything that might affect the leather
If I have to go down the old route again then I’ll do it, I’m just eager to avoid that because the design of the eyelets made it a complete pain
haven't tried it but you probably could do the aluminum foil baking soda method used for silver tarnish
its just copper oxide from the brass
aluminum redox potential is much lower than both silver and copper
zinc as well technically
so just make sure the aluminum foil is touching the eyelets, put in a bunch of baking soda or even table salt probably works
dunno what it would do to the leather though
if it doesnt work that well you could attach a battery to it
Thanks for the reply here - did find this interesting.
As an update, I tried a much thicker paste of baking soda/water, let it dry and then brushed it off
Gave the boots a wipe down, and then conditioned. Does seem to have got rid of the vast majority of it !