New Parade Shoes

Cadets Ask the Staff
21

By letting the polish dry you’re allowing it to form a shell which won’t be contiguous to the shoe and will come off either in small flakes or even huge chunks like an eggshell.

I would disagree with wdimagineer2b’s comment regarding the wire wool because unless you’re extremely careful/lucky you run the risk of scuffing or otherwise damaging the top layer of leather.

I would start by using gentle heat from a hair dryer to soften the existing polish, then wipe it off with a paper towel and finish with a brisk brushing with your “putting on” brush. This should get rid of the unevenness and leave you with a firm base to start again. If it doesn’t all come off then keep repeating it until it does.

To bring up the shine then, use a Sylvet cloth, if available, or a piece of well-washed old t-shirt, Kiwi polish (not Parade Gloss) and a small dish of cold water. Start with just a small dab of polish on the cloth and polish it in in small circles. When you feel the cloth just start to drag, dip it lightly into cold water and carry on polishing. keep alternating small dabs of polish and little dips of water and do this in small areas until you’ve covered the whole shoe and it’s all coming up shiny. At this point you may find that the cloth is bringing up the shine but also leaving smears, this is when you need to find a clean section of cloth and start to polish using just water to get rid of the smears. This could take an hour or more for each shoe but once you’ve finished they’ll look grand. Remember not to overpolish or overwet your cloth and that less is more. It’s the polish that does the work and the water is just acting as a lubricant.

BTW There are lots of short cuts to creating shiny shoes and no shortage of people who’ll tell you “the best way” but in my 46 years of experience nothing beats good old hard work.

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22

With respect I’d have to disagree also… I’ve been doing that routinely for the last 25 years and I have yet to cause any damage whatsoever. It doesn’t take any particularly special care.

The advantage of the wire wool technique versus heating and wiping off old polish with paper towel is that the wire wool leaves much of the polish in place but just smooths it, making the following bulling much easier.

I use wire wool on shoes, boots, finished wood…

23

Same method and method used when stripping lacquer coats on guitars to repolish

24

Nothing wrong with fine steel wool. It’s not exactly a scouring pad or scotchbrite.

25

Just dont put the force of a thousand gods into it. Nice and gently smooth of the top layer

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26

I’ve got nothing against using wire wool, it’s just not the advice I’d give a cadet. Apart from the risk of wire splinters being left on the surface of the shoe, or worse. I’ve also used it to strip the finish off guitars but a toecap isn’t a piece of maple or ash is it?

Also take into account the age/experience level of the cadet. I’m not a Health & Safety fiend but I definitely wouldn’t advise a 12 year old to have at his or her shoes with wire wool unless I knew that they were being adequately supervised by someone who knew what they were doing, or at least knew enough to stop them making an utter b4lls-up of it.

Lastly, the “advantage” of wire wool leaving much of the polish in place. If the polish is flaking off, do you really want to leave much of it on?

If you feel that wire wool is the way to go then crack on.