Shoe shine problem

[mikebank]

I'm ex Navy, If I want a really great shine I hand my boots to a Marine for about an hour and they shine like glass(and give up a couple of beers).

[Christensen]

I use regualr Kiwi polish, hot water, and cotton balls to shine my boots.  I get a cotton ball wet w/ hot water and apply the poish using that in little circles. It just has to be a thin, even layer. I then get a new cotton ball and get it wet w/ hot water and rub it over the boot in little circles untill the polish is "rubbed" in. I just have to do this one maybe twice to get a decent shine, the more you do it the better the shine. i've learned hot water works best.

Also, if you have the dust or flaking on your boots take a brush and brush it off before you shine again. you can rinse it off too.

hope it helps any.

C/2dLt Kelsi M. Christensen
Cache Valley Composite Squadron
RMR-UT-049

[Майор Хаткевич]

Back in 2005 I went to HGA and we had National AF Honor Guard give us a lot of tips. Granted they made a uniform junkie/nazi out of us, but they gave the best advice w/o burning the polish, etc.

Their simple advice?

Use HOT water, clean the boot with it, which supposedly opens up the pores in the leather.
Use HOT water when applying the kiwi polish, and do the 1/2" circles until you get a shine.
Use COLD water doing the final shine.

Eclipse can vouch for the quality on that, as I did his boots a few times over the years for encampment. Of course, as I progressed past the initial HGA brainwash, I realized that as long as my boots actually look black, the shine doesn't matter. It's not required in the regs, and it doesn't make me a better teacher to my cadets, only wastes the time I could use to come up with better lessons/ideas to help my cadets.

[Fuzzy]

Any other C/Officers notice that once you hit Mitchell the 'Jump Boots' seem to be almost mandatory?

Might just be a case of great minds think alike, but around my neck of the woods the guy in jungle boots is the exception.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Any other C/Officers notice that once you hit Mitchell the 'Jump Boots' seem to be almost mandatory?

Might just be a case of great minds think alike, but around my neck of the woods the guy in jungle boots is the exception.

I've worn the same Jungle Boots since 2003, and as long as my foot doesn't grow (which it won't...I'm 20), I'll keep wearing them until the sole is worn down smooth (and it's getting close!).

I never really noticed jump boots being anything special in this neck of the woods.

[Hawk200]

Any other C/Officers notice that once you hit Mitchell the 'Jump Boots' seem to be almost mandatory?

Might just be a case of great minds think alike, but around my neck of the woods the guy in jungle boots is the exception.

Different woods have different preferences. Around my area, the most popular are either the former issue black speedlace, or else SWAT/police tactical boots that comply with the manual.

[IceNine]

The jump boots were essential for me.

Only 2 spots to shine and takes away the "whole boot or nothing" argument.

I've tried a lot of fads over the years.  Floor wax, liquid polish, every brand of polish I could get my hands on, melt the wax, light the boot on fire, clean with alcohol first, buff w/nylons........

Today I clean my boots with saddle soap, put on a base layer of Lincoln Wax, brush it out, add another layer and buff it out with an old sock (smooth side)

That gets me enough of a shine to get through the day, 5 minutes the next day and I'm good to go then.

I can't think of a single time that the hours I spent were worth it.  I always scuff them on something within the first couple hours after the shine and just like with a new car all I get is hurt feelings for being clumsy.  With a base shine I'm more focused on the mission and not on keeping my boots clean and shiny.

[tsrup]

To the OP, if you want to keep the polish from "dusting" than make sure that you keep the polish wet while buffing it out.

Either use spit or dip the polishing cloth (I use an old cotton t-shirt) in water and just keep doing little circles.  Presto!


I've tried brushes, sponges, cotton balls and most other things under the sun but what I've found creates the best results is just an old t-shirt and a cup of water. 

[Mustang]

Staff got to use lighters.  We were supposed to look absolutely amazing for us to be an example our cadets.  Burn-shine was not an option since it was quick, easy (enough), and made your shoes glow in no time.  Still, most of us staff weren't actually ever able to re-shine our shoes after our initial pre-encampment training due to poor time management skills.

Fixed it for you.

Regarding "burn-shining": if you're burning anything, you're doing it wrong. I understand using a very controlled amount of heat* to melt the shoe polish, but you should never apply an open flame to any leather. 

*There is a professional shoeshine guy near Camp Pendleton who goes through Kiwi by the vat and can shine shoes better than you or I ever will; he uses a heat gun on a very low setting for the initial wax melt.

[BreakSilence]

Staff got to use lighters.  We were supposed to look absolutely amazing for us to be an example our cadets.  Burn-shine was not an option since it was quick, easy (enough), and made your shoes glow in no time.  Still, most of us staff weren't actually ever able to re-shine our shoes after our initial pre-encampment training due to poor time management skills.

Fixed it for you.

Regarding "burn-shining": if you're burning anything, you're doing it wrong. I understand using a very controlled amount of heat* to melt the shoe polish, but you should never apply an open flame to any leather. 

*There is a professional shoeshine guy near Camp Pendleton who goes through Kiwi by the vat and can shine shoes better than you or I ever will; he uses a heat gun on a very low setting for the initial wax melt.

Except for the fact that there were only two SMs at the encampment who had experience with encampment before (This is Hawaii Wing, and I should also mention this out of a grand total of 4 SMs who stayed the entire week with the 50 or so cadets) and cadets were falling down left and right from the heat (Our week of encampment just happened to be a record-setting week for high temperatures in our area), I'd agree with you.  You really have to have been at the encampment to understand exactly the amount of work the entire staff, senior and cadet, had to put into the encampment.  We actually only confirmed that the encampment could be done about two months before it started, so there was a lot of stuff we had to figure out on the run.  (Yeah, it's cutting it real close, but again, this is Hawaii Wing.)  In fact, one of the two SMs refuses to take a staff position at any of our encampments anymore simply because last year was so exhausting for him (He quadrupled duties as the Commandant of Cadets, medic, Tac Officer, Leadership Officer, Moral Leadership Officer, and CAP history class instructor...much respect to the guy).  It's easy to say we had poor time management skills as a cadet staff, but then again, we didn't have much time to manage in the first place.


Getting back to the original topic, if you BURN the wax, you're doing it wrong.  We MELT the wax.  I guess it's confusing, but it sounds nicer and more gung-ho.  Most of us used a single blow drier on high heat, low blow.  However, there were others like myself who used lighters, which were issued to the flight commanders primarily to burn strings off of uniforms.  We didn't want to wait until the blow drier had finished cooling down.

To clarify, I'm not recommending that you light your boot on fire.  Yes, that will destroy the boot guaranteed.  I am, however, laying out that burn-shine (melt-shine if you prefer) was an option for me as a cadet running a flight pretty much 24/7 with 4 hours of sleep a night for a week.  My boots stayed decent throughout the week, and if I needed to do anything, it was simple polish-and-buff touch up.  Even if you burn-shine and do it right, you still run the risk of eventually ruining your boot.  Eventually.  By that time rolls around, you should be moving on to another boot anyway.