removing shoe polish from stitching

[doublebucklemonk]

I have a pair of shoes similar to these AE Wilberts that have stitching in a contrasting color.

I took them to my local shoe repair shop (60 miles away) to have a little work done, and as "a courtesy" they polished them. They did a pretty sloppy job and now about half of the white stitching is covered in black polish.

Anyone have any suggestions on getting the polish off the stitching?

 

[Orgetorix]

Soap, water, and a toothbrush?

 

[Steven Aver]

Some saddle soap done carefully with a toothbrush should do the trick.

 

[jsherman02]

Use neutral polish...eliminates this problem

 

[Orgetorix]

Originally Posted by jsherman02

Use neutral polish...eliminates this problem

It may prevent the problem occurring in the first place, but that doesn't help the OP much.

 

[doublebucklemonk]

Originally Posted by jsherman02

Use neutral polish...eliminates this problem

I normally don't polish these and only use mink oil on them. If I had known they were going to polish them, I would have requested they use neutral (or not do it at all).

I will give the soap & water thing a try and if that doesn't work, I'll break out the saddle soap.

 

[talldesk]

Easy. Get a narrow paintbrush, like those for watercolor painting, narrow enough for those stitches . Next get some rubbing alcohol in a cup. Then using your brush, carefully apply the rubbing alcohol only on the stitches, the polish will come of.

 

[doublebucklemonk]

Thanks guys, I ended up trying the rubbing alcohol first and it worked great.

 

[jiwfh]

I tried the rubbing alchal and guess what IT DIDN'T WORK