The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.

Gdot · Nov 8, 2011

unbelragazzo said:
Thanks for this response, Gdot, very informative. I bought my creams before reading this thread, and I'm not quite ready to stop using them yet I did get a pretty nice shine on some boots using the cream, but I'm sure the wax would be significantly better. Do you use cream on the rest of the shoe if you put a mirror finish on the toes with wax?

Yes I use cream polish over the whole shoe as it conditions and adds pigment. Brush it out and then use one coat of wax over the whole shoe before starting the spit polish on the toe. I keep cream polishes in many colors but since the waxes impart very little color I just keep black, brown, navy, and neutral.

So the shoe in general gets that warm but mellow shine from the cream and that contrasts nicely with the super shiny toe.

patrickBOOTH · Nov 8, 2011

I never use cream. I find it pointless considering that I use renovateur over the whole shoe before polishing. Works better than cream for conditioning.

Gdot · Nov 8, 2011

patrickBOOTH said:
I never use cream. I find it pointless considering that I use renovateur over the whole shoe before polishing. Works better than cream for conditioning.

Perhaps I do one step more than I have to then. I do:

Conditioner (Mink Oil or I've recently started using Renovateur)
cream polish
wax

After this I just buff between wearings, apply conditioner periodically until they stop holding a shine or need additional coloring - at which point I do the above all over again.

Most people apply too much wax in the long run and it just builds up on the shoe. Better to condition frequently and polish/wax occasionally.

patrickBOOTH · Nov 8, 2011

Don't use straight mink oil on shoes. It can go rancid and rot. Before that happens it can actually make the leather so oily that it is hard to get a good shine.

unbelragazzo · Nov 8, 2011

Gdot said:
Yes I use cream polish over the whole shoe as it conditions and adds pigment. Brush it out and then use one coat of wax over the whole shoe before starting the spit polish on the toe. I keep cream polishes in many colors but since the waxes impart very little color I just keep black, brown, navy, and neutral.
So the shoe in general gets that warm but mellow shine from the cream and that contrasts nicely with the super shiny toe.

If I want to get a more interesting and deeper color in my black shoes by using navy, should I use navy wax and cream? or just one or the other? Still some black every once in a while as well?

patrickBOOTH · Nov 8, 2011

It is going to be very hard to notice any difference in shoes that are already black just using polishes. I have a pair of shoes that I striped down and used leather dye, many coats of navy and a few black coats over it and many would barely notice a difference. In any event, using navy polish on black shoes certaintly wouldn't hurt. Cream deposits more color, but wax shines better.

unbelragazzo · Nov 8, 2011

patrickBOOTH said:
It is going to be very hard to notice any difference in shoes that are already black just using polishes. I have a pair of shoes that I striped down and used leather dye, many coats of navy and a few black coats over it and many would barely notice a difference. In any event, using navy polish on black shoes certaintly wouldn't hurt. Cream deposits more color, but wax shines better.

Like no difference at all? I don't want somebody to look at it and say, "that's a navy shoe" but just to have a little more interest than your standard black shoe. Impossible?

Gdot · Nov 8, 2011

unbelragazzo said:
If I want to get a more interesting and deeper color in my black shoes by using navy, should I use navy wax and cream? or just one or the other? Still some black every once in a while as well?

I've used Navy on black shoes both creams and polishes. My experience matches Patrick's, it just never adds up to anything more than a faint glow of blue. It's nice - but no one would notice who wasn't looking very closely.

unbelragazzo · Nov 8, 2011

Gdot said:
I've used Navy on black shoes both creams and polishes. My experience matches Patrick's, it just never adds up to anything more than a faint glow of blue. It's nice - but no one would notice who wasn't looking very closely.

That's ok, I'll be looking very closely

patrickBOOTH · Nov 9, 2011

It also has to be over time. Don't try to impar too much color at one time. You will end up with dull, streaky build up. Be patient and over time with regular use, brushing, conditioning it will deposit color, but the leather will have time to absorb the oils, and the brush will brush away build up.

patrickBOOTH · Nov 9, 2011

Lear and company, with a mirror finish do you find that it needs to be stripped and re-applied over time? Or, does it just need to be added too once in a while and the build-up of wax is enough to preserve the integrity of the leather and shine underneath?

FlyingMonkey · Nov 9, 2011

Quote:

patrickBOOTH said:
Don't use straight mink oil on shoes. It can go rancid and rot. Before that happens it can actually make the leather so oily that it is hard to get a good shine.

But isn't renovateur mainly mink oil anyway? I've just checked and they do boast that this is the active ingredient... so what is it that makes renovateur not work the same way as straight mink oil used sparingly?

In fact, so far as I know, genuine mink oil designed for protecting high quality leather goods does not go rancid or cause rotting, however the cheap food-grade versions made from beef fat can indeed do so. So it's not that you should avoid all mink oil, but you do need to make sure what you are buying, and don't go for the cheap drugstore options that look like a bargain.

However, I am not sure it's necessary at all most of the time, if you are using cream polishes. Renovateur and the like are not really meant to be used every time you polish, but to recondition leather that needs deeper treatment, or to help remove previous coatings of polish and wax. It's easy to get too obsessive about these things... my father has boots he wore in the army for 40 years that have gone through everything you can imagine and more, and that have only ever been polished with standard Kiwi boot polish which we are told will do all kinds of terrible things - and yet, they look and feel fantastic.

cbfn · Nov 9, 2011

I'd like to know this as well. It's sad using hours creating a good shine, and then stripping it down after some months.

patrickBOOTH · Nov 9, 2011

FlyingMonkey said:
Quote:

But isn't renovateur mainly mink oil anyway? I've just checked and they do boast that this is the active ingredient... so what is it that makes renovateur not work the same way as straight mink oil used sparingly?

In fact, so far as I know, genuine mink oil designed for protecting high quality leather goods does not go rancid or cause rotting, however the cheap food-grade versions made from beef fat can indeed do so. So it's not that you should avoid all mink oil, but you do need to make sure what you are buying, and don't go for the cheap drugstore options that look like a bargain.

However, I am not sure it's necessary at all most of the time, if you are using cream polishes. Renovateur and the like are not really meant to be used every time you polish, but to recondition leather that needs deeper treatment, or to help remove previous coatings of polish and wax. It's easy to get too obsessive about these things... my father has boots he wore in the army for 40 years that have gone through everything you can imagine and more, and that have only ever been polished with standard Kiwi boot polish which we are told will do all kinds of terrible things - and yet, they look and feel fantastic.

DWFII The bootmaker has gone on about the whole mink oil thing in the past and feels fairly strong about it. He prefers Lexol, which is an artificial sperm whale oil. Reno has a lot of stuff in it, I wouldn't say that it is mostly mink oil. Ron Rider would know best, but apparently shea butter and beeswax are main ingredients as well as oxfoot oil, vegetable oils, oil oils and so on. Also, supposedly Saphir cream polish is very close to reno. The only difference is pigment, and shea butter. Ron would know, he has dinner with their director.

FlyingMonkey · Nov 9, 2011

Quote:

patrickBOOTH said:
DWFII The bootmaker has gone on about the whole mink oil thing in the past and feels fairly strong about it. He prefers Lexol, which is an artificial sperm whale oil. Reno has a lot of stuff in it, I wouldn't say that it is mostly mink oil. Ron Rider would know best, but apparently shea butter and beeswax are main ingredients as well as oxfoot oil, vegetable oils, oil oils and so on. Also, supposedly Saphir cream polish is very close to reno. The only difference is pigment, and shea butter. Ron would know, he has dinner with their director.

That's helpful, thanks.

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