Quote Originally Posted by CDNSushi View Post
The only other tip that I learned that made an amazing difference, was, in the process of bulling, swap out one layer of black kiwi polish for oxblood... That works some really nice magic there.
Occasional layers of neutral thrown in worked well too.

I know some guys used a lighter on their boots. Not only would you get the crap beasted out of you if someone caught you doing it (or saw evidence of you having done so), in the long rung it made the shine job look worse. It you were REALLY hard pressed, it could get you past an inspection... But after that you would really need to strip the polish and start over from scratch.
I don't remember using the lighter to make the actual gloss shine, just to make an incredible base coat. Get a really good layer of polish on the boot, and wet it lightly with your polishing water, into which you'd added a couple of drops of lighter fluid. Then run the lighter flame all around the boot...not actually touching the leather, but evenly melting the polish and giving you the best base possible to get a gloss shine.

I know what you mean about the boot fetish in cadets (754 Squadron represent!). I was camp staff at CFB Penhold one year and if we weren't working, drinking or sleeping we were listening to music and polishing our boots.