Quote Originally Posted by xman View Post
Does anybody have any pearls of wisdom about shoe shining and tea drinking or anything else which would be enlightening?
I can say that drinking beer while polishing boots and brass is pleasant but can really mess up your shine.

Actually, I never used water, spit or any other liquid and my shine was always as good as the rest. Except for the guys in the Corframs who just used Windex and a paper towel...

1. Boots/shoes clean and dry. Scuffs/scratches re-coloured before polishing.
2. Good paste polish. Back in the '70s we used Lincoln Wax. Post-Army days I have stuck to Kiwi.
3. Apply it with a dauber: sponge, cloth or whatever. You can use your fingers as we often did when without a dauber, but then you have polish-coloured fingers.
4. First brush with a very soft horsehair or synthetic brush. I still have the very first brush I ever bought at the PX. It has a plastic backing and soft synthetic fibres, and the ends of the fibres are all fuzzed out in split ends. It works a treat.
5. Nylon stockings are first-rate buffers. Besides which, getting a pair is such a fascinating endeavour.
6. Buff well all over, then apply a thin topcoat of polish and buff up the areas again. Make sure to get well in around the lower part of the upper where it meets the sole.
7. Go over the sole edges with polish or other colourant. '70s-vintage US Army combat boot soles used to turn an amazing sky-blue colour when exposed to the mud in the area where I ran a lot of FTXs. The best cure was a large black Magic Marker used to re-colour the sole edges. It also worked as a field expedient to colour in scuffs on the boot toes.

Once you're done that, then have the tea. It's such a joy to take a load of freshly laundered, pressed, cleaned and shined kit and go low crawl through a marsh. You learn to enjoy it while it lasts because you'll be doing it all over tonight.