Quote:
Originally Posted by beastor
Any cloth will do?
I think I may have buggered up though, I have got Soviet stuff to send me another pair of boots when it could have just been that I had to wrap my feet up! There was a good inch of clearence on my toes.
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You are probably right, a footcloth would most likely fixed the fit issue. The Jack boots are not meant to be worn with socks.
As for the material - soft flanel would probably be the best although many like woolen fabric similar to that used for dress suits, but softer. The standard army issue is the soft flanel ones, 40x70 centimeters. I personally prefer them slightly longer, say 40x80.
I know the whole consept of a footcloth may sound like something antiquated, something from the era of Napoleonic wars, but they have a number of advantages over socks and laced boots combination, especially for the type of wars Russian sourders had to fight over the centuries. They are inexpensive and easily cared for, can be worn for a few days before they need to be washed or replaced, dry up very quickly near a fire, provide much better insulation than socks (not a bad thing in Russia's climate). Dirt and swampy terrain is much easier to deal with in jack boots and footcloth, if you step into water or dirt deeper than your jack boots and even if your foot remains submerged for a few seconds, once you take it out, your foot remains dry as the footcloth at the top of your ancle absorbs the water and doesn't allow it to penetrate deeper inside the jack boots. Russian soldiers often didn't have the luxury of being close to a resupply base, so footcloth was a lot more practical than socks.
There are of course disadvantages too, and the jury is still out on whether the decision of the Russian army to retire the footcloth and go exclusively with socks+boots combination was a wise one.
If you decide to actually try wearing your Jack boots with a footcloth to a game I'd strongly suggest that you practice wrapping it at home and walking around for a few hours to make sure you got it right. An incorrectly wrapped footcloth will put your feet ouf of commission in a very short order. The trick is to get the top part wrapped around your ancle stay wrapped tightly, if it starts unwrapping and sliding down to your foot the whole thing becomes unraveled.
Couple more pics if you feel adventurous enough to try it:
