Respectfully I don’t see how arguing about how shiny shoes need to be will benefit the cadet who had an issue with theirs.
@Novet did you have any luck?
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If the OP (or others) are having this issue, this video might help
The author has a huge following and for some reason watching others bull shoes is strangely soothing 
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Kind of, yeah… On a far more relaxed scale. We don’t make them go through every aspect of recruit training, every day for 8 years. But we do help to prepare them for what they’ll go through if they do join up.
How would that be fair? New cadets have to work hard on their uniform, but their colleagues inspected alongside them get away with being slack…
How about yes?
“Highly polished black DMS” is what it says.
If you can show me where in our dress regulations it says “polished to a shine on the toecap, but don’t bother on the rest of the shoe” then I’ll concede.
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TBH I just want to see an effort and the fact that they have some pride in their appearance - I am not expecting a QCS turnout (but would be nice)
So long as they try and keep trying then it shows they care - the ones that obviously aim to get away with out soon get a Paddington stare
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I must add a lesson on that to my NCO Cadre course.
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The polish they use in that video is incredie… Much better than kiwi
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I have some of the polish (I’ve not tried the wax). It certainly brings up a nice shine but I’m not sure how durable it is. Worked a treat on my suit shoes.
About £6 a tin but so far it seems to go further than Kiwi so probably costs the same.
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I agree. I encourage improvement, I praise effort, and I give words of advice when it’s clear that no effort has been made.
If a cadet doesn’t have a mirror finish over the whole shoe they don’t get a polldarking. But if they’ve only worked to shine the toecap I make it clear that they need to apply the same care and effort to the whole shoe.
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… heat gun may get up to 1000 degrees…so be safe…
First thing he does when turning it on… try it on his hand…
Also. Has anyone here. Tried what he said about using a water / alcohol spirit mix to ‘buff out scratches’
Seems somewhat chemically risky, but im curious.
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I’ve often heard people talk about adding a few drops of aftershave (alcohol) to the water. Personally I’ve never tried it, nor have I felt the need to.
It is a popular claim though.
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Hair dryer is sufficient for this exercise
Absolutely!
I’d not advise the heat gun but then he restored shoes for a living.
I’ve tried the isopropyl and can’t say if it makes any difference or not. I’d have to A/B test it with the same polish and shoe. Superficially it feels like it helps the polish blend in.
I use wire wool which someone on here suggested a while back.
Me too, for removing flaky old polish. Though in this case, where the chap is trying to dry the leather, it’s obviously the heat he is after.
My shoes are starting to flake so. Need a strip back and bull, so will remember this
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I haven’t polished them since I last posted, but it got better with less water and less pressure. There’s still clearly a dull patch but I had a parade night in blues and asked someone which one I had stripped and they couldn’t tell so it isn’t that big of an issue now.
Good stuff. Keep cracking on with them and they’ll be right in no time.
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@Novet I’m not sure if you still have this issue but I have it as well and I recommend Elegant Oxford’s video on dry cracking as it has (somewhat) worked for me.
if you have fixed it well done!
the way I fixed it was with a hair dryer and a brush
to be fair hopefully you have fixed the problem as it has been 2 years!