Shoe polish: thoughts, fun facts, questions

[Hirsty]

Bulling is referred to spit polish this side of the pond.

[Hirsty]

I do love a well polished shoe.

I wear brown oxford brogues from Jones Bootmaker with my daywear set up.

We were having a beach wedding in Australia, being a rather casual affair I wore my tweed jacket, brogues, brown belt, green tie - day wear.

My shoe polishing kit came with me from Scotland and I bulled my brogues up to a mirror-like shine. As soon as my shiny feet hit the powder-fine sand of the beach they reverted to a matt finish.

[Profane James]

I really want to do it for myself - the wooden box with the shoe rest, brushes, etc - but just don’t have the time to devote. Plus, in my parts, there is a wonderful shoe repair/cobbler that has been around forEVER, and I think I would feel bad not supporting such an intensely local and valuable business.
In another context, I love the ASMR shoe cleaning and shining videos. You have to sift through the chaff, but some have wonderful cloth and brush sounds!

[Tobus]

I really want to do it for myself - the wooden box with the shoe rest, brushes, etc - but just don’t have the time to devote. Plus, in my parts, there is a wonderful shoe repair/cobbler that has been around forEVER, and I think I would feel bad not supporting such an intensely local and valuable business.
In another context, I love the ASMR shoe cleaning and shining videos. You have to sift through the chaff, but some have wonderful cloth and brush sounds!

Do you take your shoes to your local cobbler for polishing and maintenance? I wish I had someone locally who I could regularly use for repairs, resoling, etc. I'm not sure I'd need that service for everday cleaning and polishing, but it would be nice to be able to have a professional who I could rely on. Take care of your local cobbler! It's a dying trade.

I don't have a fancy shoe-shine kit like some people probably do, with the wooden box and shoe rests. Mine is just a zipper bag where I keep my tins of polish, rags, and brushes. I have separate brushes for brown and black polish. To be honest, I've never had much success with applying the polish with an applicator brush, and I prefer to just apply it with a soft cloth (old t-shirt strips) wrapped around my fingertip. So my applicator brushes only get used very rarely, but my cleaning/burnishing brushes get used all the time. There's something slightly zen-like about brushing shoes and seeing minor scuffs just disappear and get smoothed over.

What brand and type of shoe polish do people here prefer? I usually only find two brands locally, and so I typically stick to hard paste-wax Kiwi parade gloss polish (both brown and black) on my shoes. It's great for cap-toes and keeping the front wing-tip end of brogues shiny, but I'm thinking of going to a softer type of cream wax for other parts of my shoes. Specifically, the areas that bend and crease when I walk, the tongues, and other areas where paste wax doesn't last long. It flakes off and I lose the effect. I don't mind a softer or less shiny look in these areas, as I think it accentuates the hard shine on the toe when there's a two-tone effect, so to speak. Got any good recommendations for a cream wax that works well in keeping the leather more supple and keeping a semi-gloss look in the bendy parts?

[Blaidd]

What brand and type of shoe polish do people here prefer? I usually only find two brands locally, and so I typically stick to hard paste-wax Kiwi parade gloss polish (both brown and black) on my shoes. It's great for cap-toes and keeping the front wing-tip end of brogues shiny,

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

[Tobus]

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

Interesting. I've noticed a misty finish on one of my pairs of shoes that I polished with the brown Kiwi parade gloss wax. Well, maybe not misty so much as having a strange sort of coloured sheen under the surface that won't buff out. I had attributed it to putting on a coat of clear wax at one point, then going back to brown later. I haven't seen it happen on the other brown shoes I use that polish on, though.

[Blaidd]

That's interesting that it hasn't effected all! Maybe they have improved the formula....! Maybe one was an older batch... Who knows?! Try the standard as a control perhaps.

[CollinMacD]

Interesting. I've noticed a misty finish on one of my pairs of shoes that I polished with the brown Kiwi parade gloss wax. Well, maybe not misty so much as having a strange sort of coloured sheen under the surface that won't buff out. I had attributed it to putting on a coat of clear wax at one point, then going back to brown later. I haven't seen it happen on the other brown shoes I use that polish on, though.

If you have used any type of WAX on you leather shoes and you wish to put a traditional wet (spit) shine on your show, put about 5 squirts of DAWN (only Dawn) liquid dish washing liquid into a basin or sink of water with warm (not hot) water. Wipe the shoe down with the dishwater. Dawn dissolves wax. Then wipe show allow to dry the show before you go to the show polish. Works all the time, this gets rid of the dull or sheen that is caused by polishing over bad wax.

Key is to allow show to fully dry. Usually I let sit for 24 hours. CHEERS...

[Tobus]

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

I'm quoting your reply again because I gave it some more thought over the last few days and decided to "go back to basics", as it were. I've been using the Parade Gloss variant for the last few years, and it seems to give a very crisp-looking sheen without quite so much work in the bulling process, but you had me curious as to whether I've been making the right choice. So I picked up a couple of tins of regular old Kiwi polish (brown and black).

Over the week-end I had to take my Bulldogge and drop her off for a month's stay at a K9 training camp where it was rainy and muddy. I was wearing my brown Corcoran jump boots, so they needed some cleaning up last night. I washed them off and let them dry, then used a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol to take down the Parade Gloss wax from the heel cup and toe cap, with the intent of re-building the wax on them with regular brown Kiwi.

Side note: my wife is not a fan of polished boots, and thinks they look better when they're scuffed and worn. I compromise for her sake, and only polish/bull the heel cup and toe cap, leaving the rest of the boot just clean and brush-waxed without necessarily polishing or bulling it.

I try to keep it simple, using just an old t-shirt for building up the wax layers, then brushing with my horse-hair brushes, then bulling with another t-shirt rag. Here are the boots after cleaning, during the wax-building steps on the heels/toes:



I must say, I noticed a marked difference in the way the regular polish builds, as compared to the Parade Gloss variant. And in the bulling process, it took a bit more elbow grease, but the end result was a deeper shine with a better and more pure colour, if that makes sense. It didn't have the slight irridescence that I get from the Parade Gloss, and I could really feel the friction changing a lot more noticeably as it reached a mirror-like finish. I like it! I think you've convinced me to stick to regular old Kiwi polish.

Not a perfect job by military standards, I'm sure, but I'm happy with it.

[Blaidd]

I'm quoting your reply again because I gave it some more thought over the last few days and decided to "go back to basics", as it were.

Glad you liked the results! Looking good. You are probably aware of the technique of leaving the layer to dry after applying (ie not bulled) and then coming back and working that one in with the next layer. Builds up depth quicker. You can get a deeper looking shine by mixing I one layer of black polish between the brown. Almost gives an oxblood finish I suppose, but does gives a really deep looking shine.