Shoe damage (literally) - help needed

[Sander]

My attempt on a mirror shine produced this:



I used the technique described in the forum wiki's polishing guide: rubbing water and wax in for a few seconds, let it dry, repeat. Probably I repeated too often, still I found nowhere a hint that this might result in such a catastrophe.
The shoes have dried several days, so that's (unfortunately) not it.
Any ideas why this happenend and (more importantly) how to get rid of this stain?

 

[zjpj83]

Yikes.

My first guess was that it was just wet from the water.

Sorry!

 

[Siggy]

Ouch!!! looks like you burned it! Mirror shines are crap anyway, except for military boots and patent leather...

 

[Avebury]

I've never tried that method. I guess you need to use a tiny bit of water to help work the polish in. Maybe you used too much? My advice would be to run them round to your local cobblers to get their opinion. If they hum and ha or give you 'possible' or 'maybe', contact the maker. They might be able to do a rescue job. Give your shoes a week or so - the discolouration may lessen a bit. I once overpolished the toecap on a good quality pair of boots - I ended up with a dark stain. Wax polish 'sank' into it. Pretty sure I damaged the leather. I cut my losses.

 

[Sander]

Originally Posted by Avebury

I've never tried that method. I guess you need to use a tiny bit of water to help work the polish in. Maybe you used too much? My advice would be to run them round to your local cobblers to get their opinion. If they hum and ha or give you 'possible' or 'maybe', contact the maker. They might be able to do a rescue job. Give your shoes a week or so - the discolouration may lessen a bit. I once overpolished the toecap on a good quality pair of boots - I ended up with a dark stain. Wax polish 'sank' into it. Pretty sure I damaged the leather. I cut my losses.

I did both; wait and ask the cobbler - several weeks should be sufficient, I'm afraid; the cobbler just said that it's a shame to ruin such beautiful shoes.
Yet I'm sure there's a way to get these working again.

 

[polar-lemon]

You could try stripping the toe using acetone, then conditioning and re-polishing.

 

[DocHolliday]

I did this once. My spot was smaller but I managed to remove it, for the most part, by using a little diluted alcohol to strip the finish. Then I let it dry, conditioned, and blended in the light spot. But that's perilous territory, and I can't take responsibility if you repeat my foolish shenanigans.

 

[Avebury]

You could possibly try to "antique" them - turn them from tan to Burgundy or chestnut, which may possibly hide the mark. Some of the chaps here strip them back - Fiebing's De-Galzer??. Bit drastic if that's the only option left. They would know more about it than me - I'm strictly a tin of wax polish man. However, with good quality shoes, I imagine it would be pretty risky - specialist knowledge and/or experience needed. I guess you'd be stripping back the lovely burnish.

 

[grimslade]

I have no idea how you did that, but I'm sorry.

 

[Sander]

Originally Posted by DocHolliday

I did this once. My spot was smaller but I managed to remove it, for the most part, by using a little diluted alcohol to strip the finish. Then I let it dry, conditioned, and blended in the light spot. But that's perilous territory, and I can't take responsibility if you repeat my foolish shenanigans.

I thought about this as well, will use as last resort.

Originally Posted by Avebury

You could possibly try to "antique" them - turn them from tan to Burgundy or chestnut, which may possibly hide the mark. Some of the chaps here strip them back - Fiebing's De-Galzer??. Bit drastic if that's the only option left. They would know more about it than me - I'm strictly a tin of wax polish man. However, with good quality shoes, I imagine it would be pretty risky - specialist knowledge and/or experience needed. I guess you'd be stripping back the lovely burnish.

Thought about that as well, but I want to keep the tan colour. If everything else fails, I'll try the serious makeover as demonstrated on this exact same model and colour (the OP made it Alden No8-coloured, anyone have a link? Can't remember the name anymore and no idea what terms to search), but in tan.

Originally Posted by grimslade

I have no idea how you did that, but I'm sorry.

Thanks, but I haven't given up yet.

 

[antirabbit]

I apologize for the burn you got on them!

I did discover the other night, by accident a new technique for getting a mirror/near mirror shine.

I was working on a pair of shell cordovan shoes, their first shine, with the finger method to put a very thin layer on. Worked great.
I then decided I wanted to polish the toes of an old pair of boots I had. But didnt change over to the leather technique.

I made many very thin layers of polish(wax) with only my finger, but continued to polish it with only my index finger. It produced a very hard and shiny surface. I then took a nylon to it and it was pretty spectacular and took very little time to do. No burns either.

 

[rioni]

I'd saddle soap um a few times and then apply renovateur and hope for the best.

 

[srivats]

This is not permanent damage, and I think this can be repaired. Might take a bit of elbow grease, but not too difficult. You will probably need to strip the polish you applied with some sort of a leather cleaner (saphir makes some) and then re-polish.

Before you attempt anything yourself, I strongly suggest contacting Ron Rider (he posts as RIDER here) and ask for advice. He'll know what to do ...

 

[Lear]

Originally Posted by srivats

Contact Ron Rider (he posts as RIDER here) and ask him for advice. He'll know what to do ...
Rider does appears to be the expert on all things shoe & polish. It could simply be that you've created a water stain. When I'm doing a 'mirror', I take up a tiny amount of polish and then a single drop of water onto that dab of polish. The very small circular motion of my cloth covered finger, creates opaque swirls almost immediately. Further water is always added a minute drop at a time, via a free finger. By the time that particular dab of polish is finished, I'm adding just minute drops of water and using a fresh section off cloth to polish. Mix this up with lots of heavy breathing - onto the leather, not down the phone - and you should be there. Edit: This process is repeated over and over... another dab of polish... another droplet of water... You shouldn't end up with wet leather. At the most, there might be tiny droplets of water running off the shoe, like rain off of glass. This works for me Lear

 

[Toiletduck]

that sucks...