**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.** - Page 233

It might help in understanding to use the proper terminology in regard to shoe polish. All shoe polish has wax in it (except perhaps some of the really cheap liquid stuff). So, the option is not cream or wax polish, the option is Cream or Paste polish. This may seem trivial and/or obvious, but the distinction helps in understanding.

Shoe polish is shoe polish, the only real difference is the ratio of wax to oil in the composition. The amount of dyes and solvents in the mix play a much lesser role. Cream has a higher ratio of oil to wax than paste, and therefore paste has a higher ratio of wax to oil. Polish like that in the AE tubes falls in between the two, but falls closer to the cream side. Saphir Renovateur is a very light cream with some cleaning agents included as well (Great stuff).

The average person is much more exposed to tins of shoe polish that contain paste polish, than to jars of shoe polish that contain cream polish. This is mainly due to the much broader circulation/distribution of paste polish in general merchandizing. Since most people in the general public start with paste polish they tend to put too much wax and not enough oil on their shoes when learning how to polish their shoes. This is bad for the shoes in the long haul, and makes for a poor shine. And, I would be surprised if over 5% of the population ever conditions their shoes, other that the incidental conditioning provided by shoe polish. Keeping in mind that paste polish (the most common) has a lower ratio of oils for conditioning the leather.

In my opinion, if you want to take very good care of your shoes, you should use cream polish when you need to apply polish to your shoes, and use paste polish only when trying to achieve a high shine (spit shine) on the toe and heel counter. Using just paste polish will not harm a shoe if used lightly and infrequently, to keep the density of wax build up to a minimum, but most people apply way too much polish to shoes and over the long run the shoe leather will lose more and more oils that are not being properly replenished, and the excessive wax will smother the cellular fiber in the leather that needs to breathe. This causes the shoe leather, and your investment, to have a shorter span of usefulness.

Also, keep in mind that you do not have to add polish each time you shine your shoes. Simply wiping of the dust and giving them a good brushing will bring back a glow to the shoe using just the existing wax on the shoe from the last time you applied a cream or paste.


There are only 3 types of oil/fat that exist: Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral (petroleum). Most vegetable oil will go rancid much quicker than animal oil (don't use walnut oil on your walnut colored shoes), and the high viscosity in mineral oil by itself is not good for the leather. What you will find is that most animal oils for shoe leather (like Mink oil and Neatsfoot oil) also contain a small amount of mineral oil (petroleum distillates) to allow it to last longer and absorb better (even those labeled 100% pure). Since it would not be wise to use vegetable or pure mineral on leather, your only choice is animal oil/fat. Actually, coconut oil lasts quite a long time, but puppies simply cannot resist coconut covered leather.

Where can I get boot black products?

Dear all,
I apologise if this topic has been covered, but how would you recommend I condition an ostrich wallet? The canonical thing to do would be renovateur, then neutral leather food of some kind, I imagine—anything else? Thank you in advance !

How do you guys care for your gym/running/sports shoes?
I have two pairs that started to smell from sweat.
I wrapped them into a plastic bag and put them into the freezer for a day to kill everything that was living in the fabric but it didn't help much.
Do you use certain sprays to eliminate the organisms in the shoes?
I don't want to put them into the washer because it will ruin the insole and attacke the glue that attaches the outersole.

I'm all for people discovering their own 'method'. However, some rules cannot be broken.

The Golden Rule

When applying conditioner or soft/hard wax: DO NOT apply your initial dab of product to a joining seam. Nor should you apply right next to the seam and head straight to it with a fully charged cloth/finger. I know it's so bloody obvious, but in your enthusiasm to show care easily forgotten. Instead, press that dab onto a wide expanse of leather. Now massage in circles. Continue outwards, but still NOT touching the seams. When the product looks depleted, and you think you'll need more, push the last tad out to those seams. Dried seam gunk is ugly, and difficult to remove without spoiling the finish. So easily prevented.

I mentioned this further back, but it's always worth repeating. It applies to everyone and every shoe, no matter what end finish you desire.

Edit: When I say 'push the last tad out to those seams', I really mean wipe the depleted cloth into the seam. A seam in this instance being anywhere one piece of leather overlaps another.You'll think there ain't enough product on the cloth to be useful, but there always is. I've tried every other way. You might think it better to over apply on the seam and simply wipe the excess out of the joint... problem solved. Never seems to work like this though, unless using a sharp edge like a fingernail to scratch out the excess, thereby buggering up the finish again.

I'm beginning to feel a little embarrassed at the attention to detail here. But I remember reading how one US shoe shine operation gathers for a couple of hours at the end of each week, just to discuss how they can improve on the shine

Lear
Edited by Lear - 12/30/12 at 6:06pm

I just avoid going to the gym = no sweat in my running shoes

I found some bags filled with cedar shavings at a store nearby and I use those.  They absorb moisture and impart a distinct cedar smell to cover up whatever lingering foot/sweat odor remains.  They're cheap and you can find them online if you can't find it near you.  I think one of the affiliate sites, Cedarville, sells them.  They work just like shoe trees except they don't do anything with regard to shape.  But they're more portable and since they're just athletic shoes I think they're more appropriate.  Plus you can toss them in your gym bag along with your sweaty clothes and they'll help them dry as well as cover up the smell of sweat.  Before I started using these cedar bags I used dryer sheets.  They're cheap, smell like fresh laundry, they're disposable, and you can stuff a couple in your moist shoes or in your gym bag and they do the same thing.  They absorb moisture and smell nice.  Both have worked for me.

 

Hope that helps

 

~Johnny
 

Gents,

 

Thank you for the replies regarding proper shoe care. I was just wondering what process you guys take for caring for shoes immediately after they're worn? Do you just use a horsehair brush to brush them?

 

Is any care taken for the soles? Such as simple wiping with conditioner or something? I put my shoes back in the dust bags but have a feeling I should wipe it down beforehand.

 

Thanks in advance!
 

Personally, I just let them air out to dry for about 1-2 hours, and then tree them without brushing them. I don't put them back into the bags because I wear my shoes more than once per week. Every weekend I brush them and at least wipe them with a damp cloth, and polish them if deemed necessary.

I never condition the sole, although some people might tell you otherwise. e.g: the video on Crockett & Jones' website about shoecare said to put Saphir Reno on the soles.

Crossing the divide a bit here, haha ...

I'm a total shoe care noob – but I have a pair of shoes I wear very often and I recently got caught in a very bad blizzard with them. They took some pretty bad salt and water damage. I removed the salt, and put them near my heater to dry ... which I now know you are absolutely not supposed to do.

Anyway, I noticed some weird spots develop where the leather is "raised up" like it's been embossed from the other side. Is there anything that can be done about this? Or should I learn to live with it?

I would suggest putting shoe trees in shoes as soon after you take them off as possible. The point of a wooden shoe tree is to absorb the moisture from the shoe while the shoe has a solid form to dry against.

i ahve a problem where my shoe trees seem to be too small (in terms of their thickness, i guess) so there is not really much support to keep the vamp tight (?) not sure if i'm describing properly, but if anyone understands what i mean, is there anything i can do to remedy this issue? 

Bigger, wider shoe tree?

That is quite unfortunate.

Here is what I would suggest doing (and I wouldn't do this to a healthy pair of shoes). Buy a bottle of Lexol leather conditioner, and a bottle of Lexol leather cleaner, most shoe repair places will carry both. Clean the shoes with the leather cleaner again to remove any additional salts. After the shoes have dried (at room temperature), coat the shoes thoroughly with the leather conditioner and let sit over night. Put another liberal coat of conditioner on the shoes again the next day and let sit over night. The idea is to saturate the cellular structure of the leather with oils. Clogging the cellular structure of leather with too much oil is not a good thing, be we are talking about already damaged leather here. After the shoes have dried take a slightly damp very warm cloth and rub the shoes down thoroughly to flush some of the oils back out. Next, brush the shoes thoroughly and then let them sit for another day. Lastly, rub in a coat of Saphir Renovateur (it contains oils, cleaners and wax) on your shoes then polish as you normally would.

Others on this forum may have a better solution.

^ Excellent advice IMO.