**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.** - Page 244

I haven't been able to find a local cobbler that I feel confident to have do the work. In the meantime, I am focusing on cycling shoes, and wearing boots during bad weather days and changing at work. Hoping minimizing the duration of soft/wet leather sole usage will improve my high rate of toe wear.

I've bought a pair of AE's in Walnut calf and they've lighter in the toebox than the rest of the shoe.

How can I darken them to match the rest of the shoe? I'm using Saphir #03 wax polish. Do I need to take them to a cobbler or can I blend in a darker brown polish like Saphir #10 Cognac to darken them?

From my understanding cream polish has more dye than wax so if you want it to develop a patina, cream might be the way to go. I figure cream would absorb into the leather whereas layers of wax just builds up from itself.

Hey Guys,

So i tried to strip down the old polish on my AE loafers w/ some lexol cleaner and this is what happened. Perhaps I rubbed too vigorously? It appears that the original color came off. What would you recommend to do at this point? just put a lot of shoe cream on and it? Thanks for your help

PS: has anyone else had similar experiences w/ lexol leather cleaner? now i'm afraid to use it on my other shoes..
Edited by jsong812 - 1/23/13 at 7:39pm

I have used Lexol leather cleaner for a lot of years and have never had a problem with it for general cleaning. If you really want to strip all the wax off of your shoes (in the future) I would suggest RenoMat, which does not require a lot of rubbing. The chemicals in RenoMat also tend to pull some of the oils out of the leather as well, so you will want to add some leather conditioner to the shoes after using the RenoMat.

I would use Lexol leather cleaner when you want to clean your shoes and remove a few layers of wax (use before you polish the shoes for the fourth time in a row, or so). I would only strip all the way down to the finish every year or two (depending on how often you add polish to your shoes).

The damage done does not look too major, and you should be able to hid it with shoe polish. If you did in fact remove some of the factory finish, that area will tend to absorb water and oil a little more than the surrounding area, so it might darken more in that area when you apply polish, but will lighten back up as the oil soaks deeper and the excess is wiped off (and the water - if any- evaporates).

In regard to which polish is better to use to cover damage, either cream or paste work fine for slightly different reasons. Cream typically have a higher pigment ratio than paste, mainly due to the inverse wax ratio. When you polish your shoes with colored shoe polish you are just putting colored wax over the leather, the color does not go into the leather itself. Therefore the more wax you have the more color you have (think of trying to look through a number of lightly tinted windows stacked back to back). Cream polish makes up for this by using a higher pigment concentration in the mix, since it has a lower wax ratio.

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After wearing my R.M. Williams for one day in London in pretty bad weather rain/slush and I assume also salt I ended up with these lines on my shoes, they run almost the length of the shoe and looks like creases but obviously are not, could this has been cause by salt? And how would I get rid of it? I have cleaned then with normal water and used saphire renovateur to moisturise and clean but it hasn't managed to do anything. I know I can cover it with polish just wondering if anyone knew why it happened and how fix it? Thanks!

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

That's quite a departure for you, no? 

 

I recall you advocating using only renovateur and no wax.

I have used Meltonian leather balm , it's one quarter of the cost of Reno and works just as well. Reno way overpriced , overrated product or leather balm the opposite!

Anyone know what type of dressing/finish is used for soles (e.g., C&J) and where can this is picked up? I figure edge dressing can be used but the ones I've found are only black and brown; I am fairly interested in a lighter color like the tan of C&J:



Want to play around with some of the soles of my shoes.

Shoe care noob here (and this is a very long thread to pick through unfortunately).  Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, but based on my research the general steps (and I know everyone has their preferred method) to polishing your shoes are:

 

1. Clean dirt & dust off; wipe with cloth and/or brush

2. Apply a leather conditioner. Let dry.

3. Apply a cream-base polish. Let dry.

4. Apply a wax-base polish mix with water

5. Repeat step 4 until desired shine

6. Buff

 

Questions:

1. I read a lot about saphir renovator.  This is neutral polish, right?  When does this come in play?

2. Whats the difference between step 6 buffing and say step 1 where you clean/prep the shoes from dirt/dust?  Aren't either purposes just brushing with horsehair brush and/or wiping with cloth?

 

I think I had some other questions, but blanking out at the moment.  Thanks for helping a noob out.

That pretty much summed up the steps, yes. I would advise you to read Hanger Project's guide on shoe shining to get better insight, I find it excellent.

As for your questions:
1) No, it's a cleaner and conditioner, more like neutral cream, but thinner IMO.
2) The difference is small, but I either use a brush with softer bristle or a microfiber glove to achieve more shine.

noted.  Thanks very much.

Christian B, president of this thread.