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

[Nick V.]



My fascination with cleaning shoes is beginning to wain. I have a set of two brushes for every colour shoe I have. One to brush off with and the other to polish with, after applying polish. My question is this: would the sky fall in if I just kept one brush as a 'brush off' affair, whatever the colour shoes?  Just the one brush for all of my shoes for use when going out and coming in.  I realise that there would be some intermingling of colours but I can't see that it would be too desperate. I might be able to put it down to 'patination'. Simplicity is genius...except when it ain't.  Any advice would be welcome. 

It's all getting out of control. A small room of my house is slowly being taken over by boxes of polishes, waxes and conditioners, cloths and a huge box of brushes - all colour coded. I am concerned that my wife will soon have my suitcase on the doorstep.     Yours, certifiable, Munky.  

Hey Munk.

You probably have more brushes in your house than we use in the shop!
It's really not necessary...But, as they say, "whatever floats you're boat"

 

[cypi2]

My fascination with cleaning shoes is beginning to wain. I have a set of two brushes for every colour shoe I have. One to brush off with and the other to polish with, after applying polish. My question is this: would the sky fall in if I just kept one brush as a 'brush off' affair, whatever the colour shoes? Just the one brush for all of my shoes for use when going out and coming in. I realise that there would be some intermingling of colours but I can't see that it would be too desperate. I might be able to put it down to 'patination'. Simplicity is genius...except when it ain't. Any advice would be welcome.

It's all getting out of control. A small room of my house is slowly being taken over by boxes of polishes, waxes and conditioners, cloths and a huge box of brushes - all colour coded. I am concerned that my wife will soon have my suitcase on the doorstep.

Yours, certifiable, Munky.

I have three brushes and it has worked well for me (It is probably too many brushes already though):

One to brush off dust after wearing the shoes (Same brush for all shoes regardless of their color)

One brush to polish brown and burgundy shoes (tan, dark, medium, light brown or any shade of burgundy. It doesn’t matter)

One brush to polish black, blue and grey shoes

 

[dapperdoctor]

My fascination with cleaning shoes is beginning to wain. I have a set of two brushes for every colour shoe I have. One to brush off with and the other to polish with, after applying polish. My question is this: would the sky fall in if I just kept one brush as a 'brush off' affair, whatever the colour shoes? Just the one brush for all of my shoes for use when going out and coming in. I realise that there would be some intermingling of colours but I can't see that it would be too desperate. I might be able to put it down to 'patination'. Simplicity is genius...except when it ain't. Any advice would be welcome.

It's all getting out of control. A small room of my house is slowly being taken over by boxes of polishes, waxes and conditioners, cloths and a huge box of brushes - all colour coded. I am concerned that my wife will soon have my suitcase on the doorstep.

Yours, certifiable, Munky.

I have totally given up on complicated shoe cleaning regimens. It's all generally not necessary. I have concluded, after too much effort, that I should simply clean my shoes when they look bad. I use whichever brush I happen to grab. Half the time I just hit the shoes with a damp rag if I'm in a rush and that's it. I am more willing to let my shoes get a bit dirty now than I used to and let shoes "be shoes". A bit of imperfection helps to give the shoes some character anyway. It's just not worth too much time and effort for me to make everything perfect.

If a little black gets on the brown, so be it. I'm not worried about it.

 

[Munky]

Thank you, gents. The sound voices of reason. I think I will begin to rationalise my brushes. What a relief! As always, Munky.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

Other than aesthetics I haven't come to any conclusion that conditioning makes a notable difference in longevity of uppers if you're not routinely wearing them in bad weather conditions.

 

[starro]

I have brushes for different colors. But I use the same brushes for cleaning and shining. Am I committing a major faux pas and jeopardizing the longevity of my shoes?

 

[narcosis219]



I have brushes for different colors. But I use the same brushes for cleaning and shining. Am I committing a major faux pas and jeopardizing the longevity of my shoes?

Unless you're taking a picture every time and comparing before and after, you'll be fine.

The color from the polish definitely sticks to the brush, and then onto any shoes you brush onto, but it's a tiny bit. If you can imagine how little the color changes from polish normally, you can imagine how much 1/10th of the amount polish (likely less than that) will change the color

 

[rbhan12]

I have 3 dauber brushes, and usually clean them with soap and water after use. Not for the purpose of cross contamination, but more for the softness of the bristles and ease of spreading cream polish.

For shine/buffing brushes I do not change between colors--I have one horsehair and one goat hair brush. These days I've been using an old Hanes undershirt to buff off cream polish. I thought to myself if I can use an undershirt for mirror shining, why not use one for buffing?

 

[mosy]

Didn't realize until I took them off at the end of the day but it appears I abused my JCrew Alden pct's today:

These seem like pretty significant scratches or dents. Any suggestions for getting these out?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Diego65]

My fascination with cleaning shoes is beginning to wain. I have a set of two brushes for every colour shoe I have. One to brush off with and the other to polish with, after applying polish. My question is this: would the sky fall in if I just kept one brush as a 'brush off' affair, whatever the colour shoes? Just the one brush for all of my shoes for use when going out and coming in. I realise that there would be some intermingling of colours but I can't see that it would be too desperate. I might be able to put it down to 'patination'. Simplicity is genius...except when it ain't. Any advice would be welcome.

It's all getting out of control. A small room of my house is slowly being taken over by boxes of polishes, waxes and conditioners, cloths and a huge box of brushes - all colour coded. I am concerned that my wife will soon have my suitcase on the doorstep.

Yours, certifiable, Munky.

You are right in every sense, that happen to me, at the end you realise about how many hours of your weekend expend cleaning and polishing your shoes. It´s terrible!!! but in the other hand
when you look your shoes and they shine, thats make feel proud.
Well I´m a little crazy and sometimes we need to balance between our shoes and our life.
I´m not alone

 

[mosy]



Didn't realize until I took them off at the end of the day but it appears I abused my JCrew Alden pct's today:

These seem like pretty significant scratches or dents. Any suggestions for getting these out?

Thanks in advance!!

Anyone??

 

[starro]

Didn't realize until I took them off at the end of the day but it appears I abused my JCrew Alden pct's today:







These seem like pretty significant scratches or dents. Any suggestions for getting these out?

Thanks in advance!!

Scrapes and cuts happen to every one. Unless the scratch is so light as not to disturb the grain, it probably can't be "gotten out." Same goes for dents: they probably can't be lifted. They all, however, can be filled and disguised so that you can enjoy the rest of your shoes' life worryfree.

I would

1. Brush vigorously. Light marks might come out or become less noticeable.
2. Apply shoe cream, preferably in color one tone darker than the shoe.
3. Apply wax paste, in same color.

Some people might suggest smoothing the leather with the back of a spoon, but I don't think this rises to that level of alarm, and you need to know what you're doing to avoid unintended consequences. Just try the above, and you should be fine.

Last word. Mirror shined toes are less likely to be bruised this way. A layer of hard wax protects the leather. Same goes for the heel.

 

[Foxhound]

Any guides out there on darkening suede? Want to turn snuff into chocolate.

 

[Jschoen]

use neutral saphir suede protector.

 

[kbuzz]

The is a cross post from the rm Williams thread...did not get much feedback

I've got a sort of an of left field question but tmaybe someone can offer some advice. I have a 10-12 year old pair of Rm Williams boots dark brown veal calf. The front top of both shows some visible color loss. I have renomat'd the boots and attempted to even then out with both saphir MDO dark brown cream and polish. Even after a number of passes I'm not able to get close. I tried a touch of black cream but despite careful application it's a bit splotchy
Anytone have any suggestions. Maybe the saphir superfine cream since it's supposedly design d for tighter lore leather ?

Curious could there ibe something about rm Williams in general as my other pair of standard calf craftsman don't take cream and or polish easiesly as well. Thanks in advance