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

[nickwjd]

I just go a tub of Renovateur today and used it for the first time.

I stripped the mirror shine of my oxford's toe caps, then after a general cleaning with rubbing alcohol as I usually do, I rubbed in a coat of Renovateur, let it sit for a few minutes, then buffed off with a horsehair brush. After this I immediately started on my usual mirror shine with Pate De Luxe. However, this time I found it harder than normal to get to the usual level of shine that I would achieve.

Should I be letting the Renovateur absorb for a longer period before I start applying the pate de luxe? Or is this because I neglected to apply a layer of cream polish before I finished with the wax polish? (Before I got the Renovateur, I would usually apply a layer of cream polish before I moved to the wax polish)

 

[goodlensboy]

New(?) John Lobb shoe care video

 

[grendel]

I just go a tub of Renovateur today and used it for the first time.

I stripped the mirror shine of my oxford's toe caps, then after a general cleaning with rubbing alcohol as I usually do, I rubbed in a coat of Renovateur, let it sit for a few minutes, then buffed off with a horsehair brush. After this I immediately started on my usual mirror shine with Pate De Luxe. However, this time I found it harder than normal to get to the usual level of shine that I would achieve.

Should I be letting the Renovateur absorb for a longer period before I start applying the pate de luxe? Or is this because I neglected to apply a layer of cream polish before I finished with the wax polish? (Before I got the Renovateur, I would usually apply a layer of cream polish before I moved to the wax polish)

You clean your shoes regularly with rubbing alcohol? That seems excessively damaging IMO

 

[Gdot]



I just go a tub of Renovateur today and used it for the first time.

I stripped the mirror shine of my oxford's toe caps, then after a general cleaning with rubbing alcohol as I usually do, I rubbed in a coat of Renovateur, let it sit for a few minutes, then buffed off with a horsehair brush. After this I immediately started on my usual mirror shine with Pate De Luxe. However, this time I found it harder than normal to get to the usual level of shine that I would achieve.

Should I be letting the Renovateur absorb for a longer period before I start applying the pate de luxe? Or is this because I neglected to apply a layer of cream polish before I finished with the wax polish? (Before I got the Renovateur, I would usually apply a layer of cream polish before I moved to the wax polish)

Why strip the shoe? Especially with alcohol?

As to the difficulty reaching a mirror, I suspect too much oil. Let them sit for a day or two to let the oils and solvents evaporate. Brush thoroughly and start a new coat of wax.

Reno is intended to remove a little bit of the existing polish and to moisturize at the same time.

 

[nickwjd]

Sorry I should clarify, I only use the rubbing alcohol when stripping the old layer of polish off, not everytime I clean my shoes. In this case, I was stripping the captoe because it got stepped on resulting in a large area of cracks in the mirror shine.

Gdot: This is what I suspected but wasn't sure of. Since I know have a few layers of wax polish on it already, will that prevent the oils and solvents from evaporating properly? Should I begin the process again and leave the Renovateur with more time to settle?

 

[Gdot]

First - the pictogram on the side of the Reno bottle indicates that it should be left on for only 3 minutes and then buffed off. fwiw

If they were mine I would just let them sit for a couple of days - and give 'em another go. They will dry out soon enough. buff them with a clean cloth to hurry things along.

 

[nickwjd]

Thanks for the input, I'll leave them be for now then.

(I am buffing off the Reno after 3 minutes. But I didn't then give it any time before I started with the wax polish)

 

[joshuasaussey]

[/spoiler]
I like the way it came out for sure. I dont know if you happen to have a before shot to see what it looked like before.

Not much of a great pic. The lighting is making is look darker, but you can see there is not much of a gradient.

 

[pfhtrad]

Fumigation Time!

So, this is the problem. Every time I take the trees out a puff of green meets me. I guess the alochol worked somewhat, because I became used to a more lush, green forest.



The setup. 1 large box (finest available from the trash), duct taped at the top and bottom flaps cut off.
The shoes and trees (figure they got mold too) are arranged on an elevated plastic platform around a shallow bowl. Laces have been removed because sulphur is a bleach to certain textiles and I'm not entirely lazy. Figuring I'd like to keep the bowl (Trash-picked with the box but turned out to be a set of 1890's Made in England Ironstone - go figure), I covered the bowl with aluminum foil to create a small insulated void in between the plate and my inverted plastic basket so it won't melt.



This was the first idea. Didn't photograph the second. It was a paper cartridge filled with sulphur a la Revolution cartridge style which I doused in denatured alcohol. Figures I wouldn't have any lighter fluid left, but its all the same to me.



Burned poorly. So, I reset (but didn't take pictures). What I ended up doing was soaking a square piece of cardboard in alcohol and dumped about 25 grams of sulphur on the top. Formed a little mound and soaked more of the alcohol up. Worked like a charm. But there was so much residual alcohol on the foil I'm not sure if I burnt my shoes. ***** to pour accurately from those containers. If I did burn them, well, failure to prepare is preparing to fail. Shoulda known.



And the box over, saturating the shoes. While this was my first attempt and not what I ended up doing after I reset, I don't have any pictures of the smoke working itself out through the box. It streamed out of a few places where the duct tape didn't fully adhere which made me wonder if I was (a) going to burn my house down or (b) if I had lit my shoes on fire. But lack of a thick white smoke caused me to reset from the cartridge design, so I got what I wanted.

And to think that while I was in the Navy I trained in NBC gear which required all the seams to be duct-taped. No wonder the Firemen were like, if you wear this stuff you will die anyway.

Normal dwell time for a greenhouse or the like is about 8-12 hours. Overnight. Being an eager beaver - and considering how windy it is - I'm only going to do a 3 hour dwell which ends in 45 minutes.



I'll let you know if I trashed the shoes.

 

[pfhtrad]

So, the shoes have been removed. I didn't burn my shoes (+1), they smelled smokey (+1) and the sulphur looked as if it was nearly entirely consumed (+1).

Not sure if my dwell time of ~3 hours was enough. Also, I hear some people wet their items down to promote development of sulphuric acid which is how this works.

Anyway, they smelled a but smokey.

Finished pictures:

Green stuff still there, hopefully dead.



And the setup. Notice the charred square of cardboard. That yellow stuff is unconsumed and melted sulphur.



After this, the shoe interiors were wiped down with 70% rubbing alcohol to remove the hopefully inactivated mold spores, dried for just long enough for me to mix a mixture of 1 tsp. tea tree oil with a splash of alcohol to dilute. The mixture was painted on to each insole equally with an acid brush until the solution was all used up. Since tea tree oil both conditions and is a relatively powerful anti-fungal, hopefully the dilute solution will be able to saturate the leather a bit more deeply and prevent a re-occurrence.

I would potentially recommend this treatment, should it work, as it did not appear to alter the color or feel of the leather. I've experimented with bleaches and what not on some thrifted shoes before in attempts to re-color or to figure out how to combat this problem which I also experienced with a pair of Church's with very bad results. I have not yet had a pair of shoes which did not dissolve using the bleaching method. Also I am unaware if Cheaney and Church's are currently related/working together but based on my reading this does seem like an issue with improperly tanned leather. Both shoes were purchased concurrently from the same shop.

In total, this cost approx. $3.00 in materials (sulfur purchased from ebay), a handful of common household materials (basket, duct-tape, alcohol, paper towels, acid brush and a ceramic bowl) and trash-picked items (the bowl I used and a large box), and took perhaps an hour - including the trash-picking - of total active time.

The tea tree oil was left over from a previous project, but also can be had for less than $10.

So, $13.00 to fumigate and prevent, with enough sulphur to treat at least twice more.

Waiting is the hardest part.

But notice, this was not attempted to combat odors and/or long term mildew issues but an active green mold outbreak.

Time will tell if this worked. I'm optimistic.

 

[Winston S.]

So you didn't find something for the monkey to do?

 

[pfhtrad]

So you didn't find something for the monkey to do?

I caught up on three hours of spanking.

 

[Gdot]



I caught up on three hours of spanking.

seems an appropriate use of time to me.

 

[JermynStreet]

Care to make a video of your technique??? Please???

While we're getting into obsessive detail regarding shoe care: here's what I use for polishing/mirroring Saphir wax polish. I perfectly understand that for decades the favourite has been old t-shirts, handkerchiefs etc. However, this slightly softer/fluffier stuff works for me:

I purchase a metre at the department store haberdasher. It's the stuff that comes on a wide metre roll. Don't know its proper name, although another SF member says it's called molton, I wrongly call it felt. Anyway, just look for the stuff that closely resembles shoe bag material (but thinner). The thicker stuff I found to absorb too much water. I stay away from darker colour, in case it bleeds onto light coloured shoes (no proof of this though).
Remember: all posts on this subject describe what is essentially a very simple procedure. To physically show someone would take but a few minutes. It isn't a long drawn out process, nor does it take more than a couple of minutes each week. Your other option is to simply do as 99% of the population: throw a thick layer of cheap brand wax onto the shoe and brush for thirty seconds. That's been good enough for keeping mankind neat and tidy for the last fifty years.
Lear (please forgive my obsessiveness on this subject)

 

[SirGrotius]

Most disappointing thing...ordered a pair of JL Chapels (Dark Brown Museum Calf) from Barneys. Finally arrived, and they were the floor model. I could tell because of a sticker and the slightest bit of scuffing on the soles. That said, they were BEYOND comfortable and just perfect...until I found a small (mm) nick on the back of one.

I'm sending back, but there's a part of me that says hang onto them as when they fit like they do don't let 'em go.