X Kyle M Thompson

Kyle Thompson's Internet Treehouse blog

Monday, January 26, 2009

Shiny shoes for beginners

Last week I got my RAF #2 uniform, including some DMS 'Oxford' toe cap shoes in smooth Dr Martens style leather. Having spent six months getting my combat boots shiney, I wasn't looking forward to starting again - especially since I have two pairs - one for daily use, one for parades.

After a week or so basic brush polishing I have just sat down and bulled them to a mirror finish - in about half an hour. I've read all the bumf one can find on the internets about bulling shoes, and I've just hit on a method that not only works, but doesn't take hours to achieve - and uses standard Kiwi polish. I expect this is nothing new, but here it is written down for posterity, with photos to follow.

Equipment:
Three tins of Kiwi polish, two black, one black parade gloss.
Two shoe brushes, easily differentiable.
A cloth (I use a Tesco car cleaning cloth, with six month's worth of polish residue on it)
A glasses cleaning cloth (from an old pair of Specsavers glasses...)
A lighter.

Method:
From one tin of polish (use only with the brush) apply polish all over shoe with one of your brushes. Apply to both shoes.
Take the first shoe you applied polish to, brush polish it off with the other brush, then do the other shoe. By doing them in order you allow time for the polish to work its way into the shoe.
From the clean tin of polish (use only with the cloth) apply polish to the toe cap, I just rubbed it all over, none of this small circles malarkey. Again do each shoe. Brush polish the toe cap well.
Apply parade gloss to the toe cap, both shoes, buff off with cloth again allowing time for the polish to work into the shoe.
Take your lighter and heat up the toe cap a bit - just wave it around all over once, that will do. Buff the area with a glasses cleaning cloth, perhaps using a bit of water (I keep a small mister for this). Apply a small amount of polish all over the toe cap using the glasses cloth - just a dab, enough to cover to toe cap and to dull the shine. Heat this up with the lighter and buff with the glasses cloth, a mirror finish should be emerging. I say this took less than half an hour, but obviously I had a few basic layers of polish already on the shoe, so it might take a few goes. However I now have very shiny shoes that anyone wold be proud of - no cheating, no messing about with rubbing in tiny circles.

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