 G'day, how are you going? My name is Tech and welcome to my channel all about boots called bootlossophy. Today, I'm reviewing Grant Stone's elegant but tough black boot, their diesel boot in black chrome XL with a leather outsole. This is Grant Stone's plain-toe service boot pattern. They call the diesel boot. A service boot is so-called because it's modeled after or looks like the boots worn by military servicemen in the First and Second World Wars. Usually made of leather rather than the more modern gore-tex and lightweight material of modern desert combat boots of today. They're usually six inches tall, measured from the top of the heel to the top of the shaft and have a Derby or Blucher open lacing system. They are designed to provide ankle support on hikes and in combat. May or may not have a cap toe and in this case it's a plain toe and I usually construct it using a welter design and I'll go more into that later. They will usually have a low block heel rather than any tall heel or wedge sole type design. The heel is to help to prevent slipping when operating over rough terrain. The Derby or open lacing system open because they're made up of two open quarter pieces that you can pull wide open is sometimes called a Blucher lacing system after Marshall Blucher. The Prussian commander who came to Wellington's aid in the evening of the Battle of Waterloo and turned the tide against Napoleon. Up to his commissioning of the open-style laced boot for his troops they wore the typical calf length boots looking like jack boots which were uncomfortable and heavy in the mud. He designed and commissioned the open lacing system so that his infantry could have comfortable boots that they could take off and put on easily. Pretty much all bootmakers now have a service boot pattern on their list. Everyone from Thursday to Weiberg will have a plain toe or at least cap toe service boot in the mix. As you can see here, Grant Stone's diesel pattern is a really elegant simple design with just five pieces of leather. The one piece vamp, the two quarters and the two piece backstay. Proportionately they create a sleek elegant and shapely boot where they're seen in profile or directly from the top. I have reviewed other make-ups of this design by Grant Stone like the saddle tan that I'll put a link to up there. The versatility of the design means that you can change it up with different uppers, change up the outsole from leather to rubber or even a wedge sole and mix up the welt design and the colors of the welt and the edging. In fact, not counting limited editions, Grant Stone currently offers 12 different models of the diesel boot mixing and matching all of these elements. There is another black chrome excel version where these have a contrasting natural colored welt which frames the black nicely. There's another version with a black rubber outsole and a black welt if you don't like that contrast. Let's jump straight in to see how these boots are put together. Starting from the bottom up, you'll see that the outsole is a leather outsole. Some people won't wear leather outsole. They can be slippery, especially before you wear them a few times and they scratch up giving a more grippy leather surface. But once you do that, it's said they get to look ugly or scratched up and dirty like that. I can't please everyone. I like leather soles. I've been wearing leather sole shoes since I've been a kid and although they can be slippery, I like the feel and flexibility of them and I think once you're aware of what can happen and you step a little more carefully, I don't know, I've never slipped. I find them comfortable and they break in faster and they breathe so they're more odor resistant. There are grippy and slippery leather outsole though. Some leather outsole are treated impregnated with an oil or butyl chemical compound to provide more water resistance. Sometimes it's called a waterlock leather sole. This also makes them slightly more grippy. Ultimately though, they are more slippery than rubber and they probably don't last as long. In this case, the outsole is super thick, 5mm and it's combined with a 3mm leather midsole and then, wait, there's more, there's another 3mm leather welt. A welt is instrumental to this Goodyear welt construction. A welt is a strip of leather that goes around the perimeter of the boot, in this case all the way around, hence a 360 degree Goodyear welt. The inside edge of the welt is sewn onto the uppers on the inside of the boot. The outside edge of the welt is sewn directly through the midsole and the outsole together. You can see here on the welt and underneath around the outsole, that's the Goodyear stitch. The Goodyear welt construction means that the means of attaching the uppers to the sole and the sole itself are different, hence providing a barrier between water on the outside of the boot and the dry inside of the boot. It's more water resistant than if the sole were to be directly sewn onto the inside of the uppers. The stitch holes would create a weak area where the water can just seep through. In this case, the welt is a variation called a split reverse welt. The inside edge of the welt is split, the lower half is sewn to the uppers as usual and the upper half is flanged upwards and pushed against the uppers on the outside, thus increasing water resistance. It's also supposed to be more easily re-soleable. You just cut into the Goodyear stitching, peel off the worn outsole and hey presto, glue on our new outsole, stitch it back without even disturbing the uppers. Oh by the way, it's called a Goodyear welt because the construction method was invented by Charles Goodyear Jr., son of Goodyear of Goodyear vulcanized rubber fame. One of the disadvantage of a Goodyear welt, especially a 360 degree Goodyear welt, is that the method does create a discernible ledge all the way around the boot. So it's not particularly attractive for a dress boot, which you might want to be smoothly sleek where the uppers meet the sole. In the case of Alden Indies or the RM Williams Chelsea boot, they use a 270 degree Goodyear welt where the welt only goes around 3 quarters of the boot, thus leaving a slimmer looking heel profile. Now, if you think about it, sewing on a 3 mil thick strip of leather all the way around the edge of the boot is going to create a 3 mil cavity in the middle of the boot. This could be quite uncomfortable. So traditionally the cavity is filled with cork. Some modern boot makers will now use man-made fillings like foam or poron, but Grant Stone uses the traditional cork midsole on the inside and covered with a leather insole on the inside. This leather core, leather combination is meant to be more comfortable the more you wear the boots because your foot gradually impresses itself down into the sole construction, making a custom foot impression of your own feet. On top of the heel area on the inside is another piece of foam-backed leather to provide a comfortable heel strike when you walk. The heel itself is a real leather stack with a thin rubber pad inserted for shock absorption and a rubber heel strike piece to counter the slipperiness. The inside of the boot is fully lined with a tough yet supple, veg-tanned leather lining. Even the tongue is lined. This toughens up the chrome excel so that the whole boot is supple yet feels quite tough. There is no sense that this is a gentile parlor boot. The uppers feel thick and tough and ready for outdoor action despite the leather soles. The tongue is semi-gusseted up to the third eyelet. This underlined stiff tongue means that the tongue just doesn't slip during wear, one of my bugbears. The hardware is Grant Stone's very recognisable brass hardware, fully backed with washers at the back for longevity. Four large eyelets, three nicely sized speed hooks that look good taking these flat wax cotton laces but they can also take thick paracord or leather laces if that's your desire. I've already mentioned the uppers leather is chrome excel. Chrome excel is a type of leather made by Horween tannery in Chicago. They are a fifth generation tannery started in 1905 and still owned by the same family. The tanning method to produce chrome excel was invented by Horween over 100 years ago. It's tanned using over 80 different processes over the course of 28 days, a ridiculously complex and skilled operation. It's so flexible and durable that it was used as engine seals in military trucks and tanks during the Second World War. The base tann uses chromium salt to produce a soft and supple and very durable leather. Then the tanned leather is hot stuffed in great heat with secret oils and waxes, making it self-repairing because of the amount of oils and waxes impregnated in it. Then at the very end the hide is hand-finished with aniline dyes and neat foot oil. Aniline dyes are not entirely uniform in colour and sometimes the leather is not struck through, that is the dye does not go all the way through the leather. Horween produces chrome excel in a variety of colours and in this one the black is not struck through. It will patina to a t-core effect. The base colour is brown, the black dye sits on top and over time with wear the brown undertones will show through. I have to say at the moment it's such a lovely thick black and shiny leather that I'm babying it a little, but as it wears I look forward to that t-core effect. To me the black is framed beautifully by the natural coloured welt and outsole edging. The toes and heels are shaped and structured using thick veg tanned leather stiffness. Again modern boot makers might use cheaper artificial materials such as thermo plastics so the traditional leather toe box and the leather heel counter they're a nice touch. They provide the shape to the toes and allows your heels to sit into the heel cup. Those heel leather counters are covered by a two-piece backstay or more accurately a backstay strip up the shaft to cover the stitching there and a heel counter pocket to cover that heel counter. I find the combination very workman-like but elegant. The top of the shaft is unfinished not rolled or covered and this is where you can see the brown undertones showing through. The stitching all over on the welt across the reinforced areas like the quarters and the heel backstays are all very even. The stitch density per inch or stitch per inch or SPI is very even, very tight, faultless. Overall it's a well put together boot. So how do you take care of chrome excel and care for these leather soles? As a default I always try to look at the boot makers recommendations in leather care. The Grandstone website is not specific about caring for chrome excel so my next port of call is the tannery. The Halloween blog does talk about using needs for oil to finish the tanning process and says that it's their first recommendation and asked about conditioning chrome excel. At the same time I've seen elsewhere I think mainly Phil from Ashland Leather who says that when he worked at Halloween they used gallons of Venetian shoe cream. So that kind of vibe sits well with me. If you've been following my videos you know by now that for smooth leathers I swear by neutral Venetian shoe cream. It's cheaper than Sophia and to me performs equally well especially on boots that will not be worn all the time as shiny dress boots. Personally my care routine for these boots would be to first brush any loose dirt off especially around the welt. Then I clean them with a damp rag if they're dirty, let them dry and then brush again just to remove any little grains of sand that might be abrasive over time. As I said my go-to conditioner is neutral VSC so I conditioned them with one or two thin coats allowing at least 10 or 15 minutes to dry and soak into the leather. If I'm not in a hurry I might even wait overnight. Once they dry to a light haze it's back to the fine filament horsehair brush and basically brush until your arm falls off. You'd be surprised at how the oils and waxes in the leather move with a strong brisk brushing. You can't see it in this black but in any lighter colour you'd see the waxes and oils almost pool and spread underneath. You can but I don't apply a coat of cream polish in neutral or black to give the boots a little more shine. And then finally a final quick buff with a polishing cloth. In time though as the T-core effect comes through and the brown base starts to show through you can apply black cream polish. Cream polish has more pigment than wax polish and cream polish will apply a coat of colour back over the brown if that's what you want. For me when that time comes I'd still keep using Venetian in neutral and I'd be pleased with that worn T-core look. At that point these would change from my wearing them with suits and dress trousers when I want to to being pretty much 100% casual. How often would I condition them? Depends on where. Really I would not over condition them. Chrome XL is a very oil infused leather anyway. For my use where I wear these regularly but not frequently I've conditioned them once since I got them in November 2021 and they're not feeling like they need for another three or four months at least. What I will do though is brush them a lot after everywhere. As for the leather soles some people recommend putting on a toe taps those metal toe tips to prevent wear at the toes. Some people recommend putting on a rubber half sole. Me I'm loving the feel and the look of the leather so I'm not going to add anything. The toes did wear quite quickly at the beginning but then they stopped. I think what they did was they wore in line with my walking pattern but then when they had adapted the wear just stopped. These are super thick leather soles I'm going to enjoy them until the wear looks significant and then I might put on a sole protector for a bit before I eventually re-sole them. One thing I did do I applied mink oil to the sole. Once it had got scuffed and could absorb the mink oil that was my homemade version of making a waterlock sole. The mink oil did soften the leather sole and I believe waterproof the sole to a degree or at least it helped to keep the water from getting into the scuffed areas. I've already said how I sometimes wear them with a suit. I don't find that the tough look especially framed by that natural welt a discord with a formal suit or formal dress pants. I think these days you can wear a suit the traditional way especially if you're putting on a tie with a dress shirt and really dressy shoes but you can also dress down a suit partially by removing your tie and adding some seemingly incongruous but still formal footwear. These fit that bill at least while they're still all black and shiny. The natural welt is a frame not a rugged statement. For example if these were cream wedge soles or Doc Martin style thick commando type soles I wouldn't wear them with a suit. However it is a service boot so anything casual will work. I've worn them as business casual with a blazer and chinos or with five pocket pants. I think you can certainly wear them with blue denim but probably not light wash because the strong black is a heavy contrast. When they patina and the T-core effect comes through then maybe. On a versatility scale they're probably about 80%. Strangely the missing 20% at least at the moment until they patina a bit is that rugged casual end of the spectrum. They're not lumberjack or construction work boots. Anything else from barbecue casual to smart date night casual to business casual they'd be fine. Let's turn to the most stressful part of ordering online. The sizing. I find that when I buy a brand for the first time my stress levels rise when I have to choose the size and then stay that way for a couple of weeks until the boots arrive and you can actually try them on. These are built on Grant Stone's Leo Last. The Leo Last that foot shaped mold on which the boot is shaped around is set to fit four different foot types. Medium arch, high arch, heavily splayed foot and flat but flexible footed. To me it feels very much like an old and true balance last meaning that I feel my heels snugly held the waist and arch is fully supportive. I even feel the famous old and tuck under the arch. The ball of the foot is wide accommodating my big knuckle bones and the toes are rounded so that my toes have plenty of room. The contrasting split reverse wealth causes an optical illusion when seen in profile. It looks like the vamp and toe box are very flat. In fact that's far from the truth. I have never felt lack of volume in a pair of Grant Stones in my size. They fit my feet with comfortable room straight out of the box. My right size is a half down from my true Brannock size. A Brannock device is the machine you stand on in the shoe store where they slide levers around to measure the length and width of your feet. Do yourself a favor if you're buying online. Go to a physical shoe store and get yourself measured even if you don't buy anything and then contact the online boot maker and ask what would fit you giving them your Brannock measurement and maybe some examples of other shoes that fit you well. From my Brannock US 8.5D I wear Grant Stone 8D which is a perfect fit. I cannot for the life of me understand why all boot and shoemakers can't just agree on an industry standard based on an actual foot measurement. The Japanese seem to do it well because they sell their shoes using centimeter measurements. In Japan you don't buy a size 8. You buy a size measuring, I don't know, 26 centimeters or whatever. Anyway an 8D fits me perfectly. As I've already said comfort out of the box no real break in required despite the thick lined uppers and the super thick sole. Really the only thing that did need breaking in was flexing this thick leather on leather sole. Okay so now let's take a look at value. I haven't yet mentioned Grant Stone I made in China. I've discussed this in my other videos about Grant Stone like this one up here where I review the coffee suede version of this diesel boot. Here all I'm going to say is that if you think made in China equates with poor quality forget about it. These are way better quality than many British and American shoes I've owned over the years and some of them at way over this price. Quality is not a function of where something is made but from what specs you specify to the factory and what processes you put into place to drive quality manufacturing. If you have other objections like poor labour practices or politics go watch that review of the coffee suede diesels. I try to address them there. So what do I think about the quality? Big tick. These punch well over their weight. The uppers are from Horween one of the oldest and most respected tanneries in America if not the world. Chromaxel is one of their most famous and premier products. The leather lining is top quality from Wisconsin. Even the veg tanned welts and insoles are from the US. They use a cork filler in the footbed cavity not some cheaper synthetic infill like Poran. There is a triple ribbed steel shank inserted here providing arch support and rigidity. Even the heel counters and toe stiffeners are leather. Who does that these days except the top Pacific Northwest bootmakers. Their website says What does it mean? Each component is critical. These decisions define the product. This is Grant Stone. These are listed on the website at US$370. I got them in the Black Friday sale at US$278. That was a steal because I think even at US$370 they are worth it. In terms of quality manufacturing comfort in use, design versatility never mind toughness and durability they compare well if not better than old ones at US$600. Ellen Edmonds at US$400. In my opinion they are worth it at US$100 more than they are listed hands down. So guys there you have it. Those are my thoughts about these Grant Stone diesel boots in black chrome excel on a natural leather sole after about six months of regular but infrequent wear. I hope you liked this review. If you did let me know in the comments below and do me a favor and click on the like and subscribe buttons below that really helped me to grow my channel and helped me to get this video up and other videos like this to more people. If you subscribe I have many more reviews to bring to you along with the unboxing videos of any new boots that I buy and maybe some other boot related topics like what drives these new direct to consumer boot makers. So if you don't want to miss all of that then make sure you subscribe and YouTube will notify you when you log in. Until then take care guys and I'll see you soon.