Shoe polish: thoughts, fun facts, questions

[Nomad]

What's "bulling"?

I like shining my shoes, brown or black and I'm proud that I'm good at it. Part of the problem today is that it's hard to get shoes with top-grain leather. It's mostly split and burnished and never does come up to specifications or keep a shine either. I like to melt the wax in with the back of a hot tablespoon heated from the inside over a candle and rubbed HARD on the shoe. Proud to look like I've got mirrors on them when I'm done.

Very similar to what you have described above, melting the wax into the leather is optional, probably not for general civilian wear as it can to make the leather very stiff if it is deeply melted into the leather.

My favourite technique is to do the final polish under cold running water using cotton wool, this removes almost all of the tiny scuffs and scratches.

In depth description from wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_polishing