Shoe Antiquing

[Mbaldinger]

Hi all, as you appear to be the masters of shoe renovation and polishing I’d like to ask for help. I’ve been trying to learn the art of the mirror shine with mixed success. Whenever I add any water I’m getting dry looking patches which you can see in the close ups. Basically I’m getting near but I can’t quite the finish right. I look forward to hearing any thoughts or suggestion.

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Not completely sure but maybe too much water. The pale patches would have to be colored with cream polish which has more dye, then colored wax polish to seal, then perhaps neutral or saphir mirror gloss on top for the mirror shine. Only a single drip of water as your buffing. Unfortunately it looks to me that these will have to be stripped back down and start over.

 

[Dandy_dapper]

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Before and after

Wow, big change!

 

[Dandy_dapper]

Before and after: Mercanti Fiorentini

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What cream did you use?

 

[Dandy_dapper]

Not completely sure but maybe too much water. The pale patches would have to be colored with cream polish which has more dye, then colored wax polish to seal, then perhaps neutral or saphir mirror gloss on top for the mirror shine. Only a single drip of water as your buffing. Unfortunately it looks to me that these will have to be stripped back down and start over.

Absolutly, cream with dye first.

 

[Tannerm322]

Hi all, as you appear to be the masters of shoe renovation and polishing I’d like to ask for help. I’ve been trying to learn the art of the mirror shine with mixed success. Whenever I add any water I’m getting dry looking patches which you can see in the close ups. Basically I’m getting near but I can’t quite the finish right. I look forward to hearing any thoughts or suggestion.

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That's happened to me before and I believe it's due to not having enough water/wax resulting in your cloth just dragging across the wax and not actually buffing it. Try covering it with a layer of wax, letting it dry, then buffing again with just a drop of water. If that doesn't work I'd just strip it off and try again.

 

[aph999]

I looked over the thread to see if this has been covered before, but didn’t find it; I don’t want to fully strip and re-dye my shoes, rather I just want to add a bit more of a cognac hue to my whiskey-toned Bontoni shoes. Can I simply strip the wax coating and apply cognac polish, followed by neutral wax coats? Any advice?

 

[Jack_P]

I looked over the thread to see if this has been covered before, but didn’t find it; I don’t want to fully strip and re-dye my shoes, rather I just want to add a bit more of a cognac hue to my whiskey-toned Bontoni shoes. Can I simply strip the wax coating and apply cognac polish, followed by neutral wax coats? Any advice?

Creams and polishes will influence the colour of your shoes but add more of a tint than an actual colour. For the maximum effect use both cream and wax in your preferred colour but be aware that in most cases it is likely to darken the overall tone of the leather. If you don’t like the results renomat can be used to restore the leather very close to the colour you started with. Just take care to recondition after any efforts to strip polish.

 

[Mbaldinger]

Just finished working on my AE strands...I'm rather pleased with these!

 

[Buckeye20012001]

This was sent in from a member here. A bit more of a berluti style I guess

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After

it’s been years. I commissioned these before my divorce. Lost them in the process in that ex donated my cloths and shoes to the community.

 

[Oshare]

With some lockdown time on my hands, today I made my first real attempt at antiquing a pair of shoes.

To experiment, I started with a pair of mediocre quality made-in-Vietnam shoes that I bought in Singapore a few years ago, but don't wear anymore due to having a much expanded and better shoe collection these days.

Years ago I had rubbed some black and dark brown polish onto the toes, but you can see the poor results below.

I went at the shoes with Renomat (font shoe below), which took off the old polish but left the leather's coated finish intact.

I wanted to go for a museum calf look, so as an experiment I dabbed some drops of dark brown leather dye onto the Renomat soaked mitt, and then proceeded to blot the dye all over the shoes. The results were subtle, but not too bad at this point.

Then came a few hours of working on and brushing off multiple coats of black, dark brown, and mahogany creme polishes. This is how the shoes came out.

When I tried to give the toes a mirror shine, the wax started to take off the colored creme polish so I had to stop.

Also, this is low quality corrected grain leather with ugly creasing. If I decide to try this again, I think I will pick up some acetone and strip off the finish completely. That way the dye and polishes should adhere better, and give a more durable antiqued finish.

For now I might wear these shoes again and see how I feel about them.

 

[Bertrand]

this is an amazing thread

 

[JFWR]

it’s been years. I commissioned these before my divorce. Lost them in the process in that ex donated my cloths and shoes to the community.

Allen Edmonds' Weybridge?