Spit and polish.

[Eamonn]

I know some of my fellow forum members have a military background.

I'm trying to find any tips that work for highly polished shoes or boots.

Is one polish better than others?

What sort of cloth works best?

Should you strip down?? (Remove old polish?)

Any ideas and tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Ea.

 

[Gunny2862]

There are many methods and practices that work. This is my most often used and easiest to use.

1st - if new boots then ensure that you have removed any protective coatings. Then apply some leather dye.

- if old boots, especially if there is dirt in the old layers of polish, then I would try to start fresh by removing the old polish. Clean and working the polish into the pores of the leather is the goal!

 

2nd - the leather should be as smooth as possible before polish is applied, bumps, cuts, and uneven leather won't look as good with a spit shine.

 

3rd - just put a nice coat of polish on (if your end goal is a real spit shine look ensure you use new polish)- apply and buff until you see a good buff shine, repeat application and buffing if necessary.

 

4th - you may find that if you don't need a spit shine that you don't need to go further

 

5th - I like to use a clean white t-shirt cut length wise into +/- 4 inch(10 cm) strips, I like to use water and sometimes an extremely very, tiny, minute, small amount of an oil that is compatible with the polish I am using.

 

Wrap two layers of cloth around your first two fingers, with some pressure, then continue up the hand and to the wrist to secure the strip of cloth. Take a small, little dab of polish onto the cloth, dip in the water, rub in small 3 cm (inch and a 1/4) overlapping circles with a fair amount of pressure , spreading the polish very very thinly over a fairly small area. Repeat until done.

 

Note: When actually doing the spit shine portion it will take some judgment to see if you are using enough polish or too little, or enough pressure or too much. In my experience you cannot use too much water but if you add any oil you can use too much very very easily and may need to strip all the way back down and start over. The oil I usually don't add unless I'm only setting them up for a one day event and am going to strip them again soon or if I am forced to use old dried out polish. A very light mineral oil is what I have used the most but check it on a piece of old leather with your polish of choice if you decide to use the oil trick.

 

I know some people heat the polish prior to application - this is usually just loosening some of the oil in the polish so that it is available on the surface, it will dry out the remaining polish in the can but can be a good technique if you don't care about using all of the polish in your can.

 

Good luck!

 

[John-in-KC]

Do you really want this? Corfam shoes (artificial leather) do a very nice job.

 

Superior leather, little grain! What you do when you spitshine is fill all the pores and pockmarks in the leather. In fact, with very high quality leathers a buff shine may give you a 95% solution.

 

I've always used Kiwi black.

 

I typically use a linen handkerchief. I'm only on my 3d spitshine rag since I joined ROTC in 1974. I used to hand wash it once a year.

 

Short version of what your doing is hand-rubbing the leather until you are polishing polish.

 

I've never needed to heat my polish, usually a light press into the polish gets enough oil on my shine rag.

 

 

 

 

[SSScout]

Here's how I was taught. It works, but BE CAREFUL (you'll see why in a minute). Corfam? Nah...

 

Collect: Shoes, Kiwi black wax polish in the little can (Esquire not so good, seems like), a small candle anchored on a plate, Cotton balls (cosmetic section), old wool sock, stiff bristle brush, cotton rag (T shirt?). Saddle soap, if possible.

 

Allow AT LEAST an hour (HOUR) per shoe.

 

Clean shoes with stiff brush and cotton rag as necessary. ( if they are new, just wipe dust off). Saddle soap to remove dirt. Water as nescessary. If leather soaks up water, let'em dry thoroughly before proceeding.

 

Light candle. Take dry shoe, and with wool sock rub on LOTS of wax all over shoe. CAREFULLY, rotate shoe round and round (keep moving) over candle, (Non purists can try a hairdryer on high), melting the wax INTO the shoe leather. If you hesitate, or get too close, the wax may catch fire. BLOW IT OUT IMMEDIATELY. Burnt leather will not take a polish easily. The goal is to build up a base of wax soaked into the leather. You will be amazed at how much wax will dissappear into the shoe. Rub on some more wax, melt again.

 

When you think you've got as much wax into the shoe as you want, proceed as follows:

 

Take a cotton ball, and rub a leetle black wax ( I knew some, who at this point, used canning parrafin) onto the cotton. Soak it in COLD water, wring out most.And rub on the shoe in quick, circular motions. Wax dissapears. Dap on more wax. Rub. Wax. Rub in circular motion. Repeat as necessary all over shoe. When the cotton ball falls apart, take another and keep on keeping on.

 

Not only go by visual quality but by tactile feel. EVENTUALLY (oh ye of little faith...), the shine will appear. Do not use the heat again. Only rubbing with the COLD water and wax on a cotton ball.

 

The standard we held to was being able to see reflected in the toe or heel, two separate fingers from two feet away. (phew).

 

A good job would only need a touch up before inspection.

 

Not to be tried on desert boots...

 

"Walk a mile in my (spit shined) shoes... Not on yer life!'

 

Acronimically yours, YiS........

[Crew21_Adv]

Eamonn,

 

Greetings!

 

Excellent advise from our fellow forum posters!

 

If I recall, you have a Venturing Sea Scout Ship. I checked briefly thru the Sea Scout manual, there are a few pages about the uniform options, but very little about the shoe wear.

 

The Sea Scout manual has many references in its bibliography. One good reference is the Blue Jackets Manual, which may have some good advise as well.

 

With youth shining their shoes. If they are Scouts or Sea Scouts, I would certainly be impressed. A military member may take their time shining their shoes, and treat them with care. My Venturing Crew and Troop youth may might stay on task for 5, maybe 10 minutes.

 

So I figured, what would a youth do to learn how to shine a shoe. Then I Google'd "shoe shine".

 

I loved the five minute shoeshine. (sounds like my Venturers and Scouts, quick and easy.. lol) There was a good advise on www.ehow.com and even Wikipedia offers some good advise. I wouldn't trust the banana peel shine. It might work a couple of minutes before a Crew uniform inspection or a major board meeting on Wall Street, but I would hate to see the shoes an hour later.

 

But this shoe shining got me thinking. If my Venturers could learn to shine shoes, heck, they may do pretty darn good as a Unit Money Earning Project!! Maybe I should take this back to my Crew for their next fund raiser.

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[Gunny2862]

I've seen SSScouts method work really well also.

[Gonzo1]

Eamonn,

Gunny and John-in-KC have good comment. If you're needing to improve the shoe shines of the ship members, you're probably wearing navy issue boondockers, right? A good shine on most of the boot is all you can expect. But, since the boondockers are steel toe, you'll get great results on the toe area.

 

Sorry SSS, not a big fan of the candle, but if you'd like to melt the polish (wax) into the leather, apply the was, use a bic type lighter and wave the flame about the wax to just barely melt it in. I have found this to be acceptable.

 

Patience is the key to shoe shining military type boots. Kiwi polish in the small can works best, cotton handerchief or t-shirt is what I've used.

 

Gonzo

 

[theysawyoucomin']

One thing that was omitted.

 

As you build, flex the shoe every now and then as though you were walking with it. you don't want to build over the flex area and then shine them only to bust up the shine the first time you wear them. It looks bad.

 

Also impress upon the kids that with a "spit shine there are three things to remember

 

1 After all the leather pores have polish worked into them and a good build is worked up you are actually shining polish not the leather any more. You'll see it if you don't understand.

 

2 never actually spit on your shoes it's unsat and disgusting.

 

3 As you get close to perfect the only moisture your going to need for the last couple of swirls is condensation from your breath.

 

The oil that Gunny spoke of can be Kiwi neutral which works good at the very end.

 

Make sure the kids apply edge dressing(get it at a shoe repair place) use it on the edges and where the upper is sewn to the sole. Nothing looks worse than spit shines with no edge dressing. You work for hours on the shine , what's another 3 minutes with the edge dressing. It's the cherry on top of the sunday.

[hot_foot_eagle]

I've had good luck with Kiwi Parade Gloss (black) and cotton balls. I'm not into the heat thing, but it's a time-honored tradition and it does work.

 

Beware the "cosmetic puff," an inferior cotton ball substitute, probably polyester, that tends to scratch your shine during the critical final polishing. 100% cotton doesn't have this problem.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

A comment:

 

I had 3-4 pair of combat boots at any given moment during my active and reserve service. I kept a pair of jungle boots, because they were comfortable in the summer! I had two pair of "Graf" or Bundeswehr boots, because they were comfortable in winter. I usually had one pair of issue boots for mucking around in the track park.

 

After a major field problem (Graf or NTC), my boots would need some serious rework, but within a week, at least one pair was ready for a "dog and pony show."

[Gunny2862]

uz2bnowl's comments on flexing the boot while polishing and the edge dressing are excellent points! And I have used the clear Kiwi neutral(clear) polish as a topcoat.