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Munky

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What is the best way to care for 'painted' crust? In this case, it is a fairly pale blue. The dealer suggest not using anything like renovating creams or 'polish with a high solvent content'. The latter seems to rule out most creams. I have some neutral Collonil cream which will do the job but I am worried that the shoes will leach their colour, over time, if I don't occasionally top up the colour. To this end, I bought some Saphir Pate de Luxe cream which is almost an exact match. As we know, Saphir polishes contain quite a lot of turpentine, as a solvent. My questions are: a) will i ruin the hand painted patination if I occasionally use this product and b) if I don't use any 'coloured' polish, will the colour of the shoes fade over time? With thanks and anticipation, Munky.
 

Luigi_M

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Munky, in my experiments with the heel of my shoes I needed some hard wax.
I tried to carve a little bit of Saphir Pate de Luxe (the one providing 'high shine' or glacage) and let it for a whole three days out of the tin.
It seemed to lose it strong smell of turpentine and get a little more hard.
Maybe you might want to try to do the same.
I would try my "un-turpentined" wax on a hidden area of the shoe to be sure it doesn't affect the patina, however.
Yours, Luigi
 

Munky

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Munky, in my experiments with the heel of my shoes I needed some hard wax.
I tried to carve a little bit of Saphir Pate de Luxe (the one providing 'high shine' or glacage) and let it for a whole three days out of the tin.
It seemed to lose it strong smell of turpentine and get a little more hard.
Maybe you might want to try to do the same.
I would try my "un-turpentined" wax on a hidden area of the shoe to be sure it doesn't affect the patina, however.
Yours, Luigi

That really does sound like a good idea, Luigi, thanks! I can see how the turpentine would evaporate and the polish would harden. The result sounds like something that I could use on my shoes. My only concern is that a hard wax may wear away at the paint work. But, as you say, I can try it on a virtually hidden part of the shoe. Thanks, again and best wishes, Munky.
 

josef1

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@josef1 why not try just with wax (something like Saphir high gloss wax, or equivalent of other brands)?
A Dark brown or a Mahogany should match the colour of your shoes well enough and, in my limited experience, this kind of wax has some solvent in it, that somehow "melts" the previous layers of wax on the shoe.
I would rub it in small circles with a clean cloth on all the shoe, starting in the damaged areas and then extending to all the shoe.
On the vamp you might want to give only a couple of layers of wax (to avoid possible cracking) but on the toe you may give as much layers as you want, maybe even bull shine it.
I already tried this method on a cheap pair of shoes (heavily burnished from the factory) and got passable outcomes.
If I remember well, I owe this idea to one of our resident experts, @benhour .
Are your shoes Allen Edmonds?
Best luck, Luigi.

Just coloured wax might work too although since the scuff seems a bit deep, I suggested Reno'Mat so it starts and ends all even rather than trying to catch up with the old layers of wax to fill up the scuff. Also cause as you mentioned, the vamp might not take too much wax to fill up the scuffs since evening it all out with layers might be too much and lead to cracking.
 

Poshak Man

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What is the best way to care for 'painted' crust? In this case, it is a fairly pale blue. The dealer suggest not using anything like renovating creams or 'polish with a high solvent content'. The latter seems to rule out most creams. I have some neutral Collonil cream which will do the job but I am worried that the shoes will leach their colour, over time, if I don't occasionally top up the colour. To this end, I bought some Saphir Pate de Luxe cream which is almost an exact match. As we know, Saphir polishes contain quite a lot of turpentine, as a solvent. My questions are: a) will i ruin the hand painted patination if I occasionally use this product and b) if I don't use any 'coloured' polish, will the colour of the shoes fade over time? With thanks and anticipation, Munky.

Munky, Some 10 years ago I used Saphir polish on my Gooyear welted $1k+ shoes. Almost had a heart attack when the polish completely removed all the hand painted patina revealing the flat tan color leather under the hand painted patina. I had to send the shoes back to Santoni, who redid all the patina work. They also suggested that going forward I use Santoni branded waxes which I did and never had any trouble.
 

Munky

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Munky, Some 10 years ago I used Saphir polish on my Gooyear welted $1k+ shoes. Almost had a heart attack when the polish completely removed all the hand painted patina revealing the flat tan color leather under the hand painted patina. I had to send the shoes back to Santoni, who redid all the patina work. They also suggested that going forward I use Santoni branded waxes which I did and never had any trouble.

Thank you very much for this. There was a tin of beeswax polish, in with the shoes, when I bought them. I think I will stay with this, even though it is neutral. Thanks again, Munky.
 
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Munky, Some 10 years ago I used Saphir polish on my Gooyear welted $1k+ shoes. Almost had a heart attack when the polish completely removed all the hand painted patina revealing the flat tan color leather under the hand painted patina. I had to send the shoes back to Santoni, who redid all the patina work. They also suggested that going forward I use Santoni branded waxes which I did and never had any trouble.
same happened to me when I was trying to mirror shine my navy patina shoes with saphir mirror gloss (neutral), when I applied the first layer of mirror gloss wax, it seemed to wash out all the color / cream of the shoes
 

Munky

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A strange question from me...is it ok to brush hand painted crust?
 

right_hook

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Munky, Some 10 years ago I used Saphir polish on my Gooyear welted $1k+ shoes. Almost had a heart attack when the polish completely removed all the hand painted patina revealing the flat tan color leather under the hand painted patina. I had to send the shoes back to Santoni, who redid all the patina work. They also suggested that going forward I use Santoni branded waxes which I did and never had any trouble.

same happened to me when I was trying to mirror shine my navy patina shoes with saphir mirror gloss (neutral), when I applied the first layer of mirror gloss wax, it seemed to wash out all the color / cream of the shoes

Btw, this is a very interesting information and experience.
It seems like that "hand painted patina" effect have been created with cream/wax polish on top of the leather. And in the result, you've dissolved it with wax polish. Actually, I've had such problem.
But, if that "hand painted patina" finish have been made properly, and by this I mean "gradient" leather dye (deeply penetrated into the leather), cream and wax - so it would be realy difficult to ruin even with acetone...
 

mreams99

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Btw, this is a very interesting information and experience.
It seems like that "hand painted patina" effect have been created with cream/wax polish on top of the leather. And in the result, you've dissolved it with wax polish. Actually, I've had such problem.
But, if that "hand painted patina" finish have been made properly, and by this I mean "gradient" leather dye (deeply penetrated into the leather), cream and wax - so it would be realy difficult to ruin even with acetone...
Two years ago, I redyed a pair of walnut/tan shoes into a medium shade of brown and added a slightly darker dye to the toes (which was also enhanced with cream and polish). I think that this method is more long-lasting.

Before:
BEC87B69-485A-42FC-8B65-45A9DA71F092.jpeg


After:
56CB9E91-B161-47FC-96EA-7D4985518161.jpeg
 

cypi2

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What is the best way to care for 'painted' crust? In this case, it is a fairly pale blue. The dealer suggest not using anything like renovating creams or 'polish with a high solvent content'. The latter seems to rule out most creams. I have some neutral Collonil cream which will do the job but I am worried that the shoes will leach their colour, over time, if I don't occasionally top up the colour. To this end, I bought some Saphir Pate de Luxe cream which is almost an exact match. As we know, Saphir polishes contain quite a lot of turpentine, as a solvent. My questions are: a) will i ruin the hand painted patination if I occasionally use this product and b) if I don't use any 'coloured' polish, will the colour of the shoes fade over time? With thanks and anticipation, Munky.

Hi Munky,

First, I will not pretend to know what the best way to take care of crust leather shoes with a handmade patina is. Rather, the purpose of what follows is to give you one opinion and to share my routine to take care of crust leather.

On my opinion you can safely apply the Saphir Pate de Luxe cream of the color of your shoes from time to time (I know you will apply it sparingly). As you suggested, I believe this will revive your shoes’ color. Of course, this will change the handmade patina in some way. My observation is that it often slightly darkens it, and, I have also noticed that this darkening slowly fades away with time. I personally like the patina that builds up on crust leather over time as a result of applying shoe cream very much.

Below is the regular routine that I follow to take care of my crust leather shoes. In terms of frequency, I do this once or twice a year:

1. Brush
2. Remove shoe paste residue with a light application of Saphir Crème Universelle, Grison Essentielle or esle (Note that I usually apply this cream very sparingly as it tends to remove some of the handmade or built up patina)
3. Brush
4. Apply a small amount (about 2/3 of the size of my little finger’s nail for a whole shoe) of pigmented shoe cream to revive the color
5. Brush
6. Apply some shoe paste (possibly of the same color as the shoes) for the shine
7. Brush
8. Apply a small amount (about 2/3 of the size of my little finger’s nail for a whole shoe) of Saphir Rénovateur (I do this because I think that shoe pastes and their solvents tend to dry leather. I have the impression that applying Rénovateur mitigates that drying a bit and that it helps the color set better on the leather - I am totally ready to hear that I am delirious, by the way…)
9. Brush
10. I glaze the toes of my shoes because I like glazed toes.

This routine has worked well for me. But again, I am not saying that this is the best way to take care of crust leather. It is just one way to take care of it.

For illustration, below is one pair of my pairs of crust leather shoes. I chose this one because it is navy blue like your pair if i am not mistaking (Except the saddle which is black - I am terrible with cameras and i am not sure the picture is very good) .
Note that the blue was slightly lighter when I first received the shoes. But, I like the way they look now very much too.

SC.jpg
 
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