Friday, March 12, 2010

How do I make my Boots Super Shiny (black glass) 10 points?

For years I have been "bulling" my boots with parade gloss. That is adding parade gloss and then swirling water into it in a circular motion untill it gets shiny. I think its shiny but then i turn up on parade and everyone else has super shiny boots. When I ask them how they do it they either say its a "secret" or a "police technique". Can anyone say how they do it. By the way this is only for the leather steel toecap





Much appreciated

How do I make my Boots Super Shiny (black glass) 10 points?
Are you sure they are not using Paten leather boots or a liquid polish? Some of the military shoe are that now.





The thing we use to do is as you described, but also use a match to melt the polish as we applied it.





Another thing to consider is that after polish has built up to much there is no way to renew the shine. I spent several weekends stripping my boots, reapplying black boot dye and building up the shine again. Lost several weekends like that. If you strip them, it is a lot of work to get them to shine again.
Reply:when we still had black boots in the army I used kiwi parade gloss, lit the can on fire, let it melt, and then blew the flame out and slapped the gunk on the boot, then used the ol' spit and swirl method, it took a little bit of time each night, but it was worth it, I had the best boots out there!





Some other guys used the cheater liquids that you "paint" on or baked on, but all that crap makes your boots deteriorate faster.
Reply:you have the right technique but not the patience or skill?


anyway, water and polish with swirls is how you do it to get glass. there are no short cuts.





by the way, in my branch you would have been better off to just show up with clean buffed boots than to show up with spit shined tow caps. it showed you like to half a** the job and would have been looked down on. you either showed up with a full spit shine or none at all.
Reply:always used cotton balls and a little saliva for a hardener, or cold water, some guys were just better at it, have paid as high as $200 a shoe on occasion, but there used to be a product called 5 day deodorant pads that put the clear coat on them but turned foggy in the sun, best way is the first way i described, takes patience tho, the cold water worked best for me, use a cotton ball until it drags a little on the polished surface
Reply:We use Leather Luster on all of our parade Boots. It's kinda like a paint. Comes in a little bottle with a brush. Apply it, let it dry. You'll be able to see your reflection. Long lasting, and to polish you just use windex. Here is their website:


http://www.leatherluster.com/


You can also find it at clothing and sales and most military surplus stores
Reply:kiwi black polish, handkerchief and a little water. Use two fingers and use a circular motion. I used to spit shine my jungle boots in the Marine Corps.
Reply:yeah, the "big secret" is Future floor wax. It'll eventually hasten your boots' deterioration but they'll look nice and shiny for about a year.
Reply:Yellow duster, tap water and Kiwi polish. Apply in a circular motion over an area of about 1" a time. Hard work but works.
Reply:Water, hot KIWI, soft cloth, effort.
Reply:Spit and shine, does that work??
Reply:Before the ACU came into service I took pride in appearance of my uniform in garrison. I was not a leather luster type of guy but an old fashioned shoe shine guy. I found that I had the most success with just regular Kiwi. I would take a cotton ball that was wet with cold water and apply a thick coat to my boots. Then I would brush shine them all the way around so the coat was even all over the boot and not just the toes and heels. Then, I would apply another thick layer all over the boot and use a heat gun to heat the kiwi into the boot. The polish should have a cloudy appearance. After this I would get a new cotton ball and dab it in cold water, put just a small amount of polish on it and begin to shine the boots. I'd use a circular motion redabbing in water and kiwi as needed from the back of the boot, up to the sides and finally to the front. I don't use the parade gloss or the neutral, just regular kiwi and occasionally lincoln wax. Remember, it takes time to build up a good base coat, at the same time you need to remember that it is possible to have too much build up on your boots as well. If you have too much build up then just take a scotch brite pad and rub off the excess polish down to the original layer. After this you should be able to easily re-establish a good coat. I have spent up to four hours straight shining my boots before, but, once you get a system down, it should not take more than 30 minutes.


Now, if you want convenience, then leather luster is a good way to go, but only use it if there's not a good chance that the boots will be used for anything other than formations or easy light duty. If you can manage to take care of them you can keep a good coat of leather luster on a pair of boots for months. Yet, the chemicals from this applicant are harmful to the leather of your boot and it is possible to shorten the service life of the boot. If you've never used this product before I would reccomend you have someone who has used it show you how, many a fellow soldiers boots I've seen ruined because of their lack of experience with the product.





Hope this helps!



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