Saphir Renovateur to clean shoes?

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

If I might be so presumptious as to illustrate what DWF is saying with an analogy that many here on teh StyleForvm will understand: It is like the difference between Americans and Canadians on one hand, and Europeans on the other. Americans and Canadians (and by "Canadian" I, of course, exclude French Canadians) tend to shower and bathe every day. This habit helps to remove microfine particles of ground rock, old coke bottles, etc. Europeans, in contrast, do not. They tend to rub lotion on their bodies and to douse themselves with cologne instead of bathing. This just moves the dirt around...including obsidian glass that settles on the body from the periodic eruptions of Vesuvius (a cone-shaped mountain near Naples.) I hope that was helpful. - B
Helpful and apt. Here in the "upper left-hand corner" Vesuvius is but a shadow to Mt. Mazama. If obsidian weren't black (or sometimes red) we could see the earthworms for catching bullheads.

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

Americans and Canadians (and by "Canadian" I, of course, exclude French Canadians) tend to shower and bathe every day. This habit helps to remove microfine particles of ground rock, old coke bottles, etc. - B
Do Americanadians subsequently strain the bathwater and then freebase the trapped particulate?

Originally Posted by DWFII

Click to expand...

Here in the "upper left-hand corner" Vesuvius is but a shadow to Mt. Mazama.

Don't get me started on how puny European volcanos are.


- B

Originally Posted by bigbris1

Click to expand...

Do Americanadians subsequently strain the bathwater and then freebase the trapped particulate?

If only Perrier drinkers knew the full truth...


- B

Originally Posted by DWFII

Click to expand...

I think I'm repeating myself but it bears repeating--soap gets rinsed off. The oils and greases in soap lift and encapsulate the dirt so that a "flushing" with water can remove it from the surface.

If you're not rinsing in the shower, you're not clean. More Joop is indicated.

Again...saddle soap is fine for...ahem...saddles. On shoes in leaves a tallow residue that collects and holds dirt...in the creases.

Why does it have to be by rinsing? The dirt still gets picked up -- and ends up either transferred to the cloth or pushed to the edges of the shoe. Right?

Originally Posted by LaoHu

Click to expand...

You must mean QuÃ

bÃ

cois. There are no "French" Canadians.


You would not joke about this if you had gone to the Store Sign Apostrophe Graveyard in which apostrophes ripped from store signs throughout Quà bec in the 1970s and 1980s are interred.


- B

Originally Posted by Ataturk

Click to expand...

Why does it have to be by rinsing? The dirt still gets picked up -- and ends up either transferred to the cloth or pushed to the edges of the shoe. Right?
Well, think it through. Why do you need the Renovateur? Can't you just rub the shoe down with a rag? Won't that transfer the dirt to the cloth? Of course it will...to a limited degree--approximately to the same degree that wiping your face with a dry cloth will remove the coal dust after a hard day in the mines. Or just wiping the spaghetti sauce off a plate before putting it back in the cupboard. But what actually happens? In the case of your face, some dust comes off on the cloth. But, even if only by virtue of the oils that your skin naturally has, much of the dirt will remain, embedded in those oils, and most of that will end up in the creases of your skin. The same thing happens with leather...which is, after all, a preserved form of skin. I am near-as-nevermind certain (never having used it myself) that Renovateur was formulated to penetrate into the pores of the leather and nourish the fiber mat beneath the corium/grain surface. So, you rub it around. The more you rub it the warmer/softer it gets and the more it soaks in...carrying dirt with it. It begs the question doesn't it? ...or several questions:

This is why I vacuum my shoes at the end of each day.

I use a converted Flowbee with the cutting attachments removed.


- B

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

This is why I vacuum my shoes at the end of each day. I use a converted Flowbee with the cutting attachments removed. - B
Not enough suction...you need something that will lift a bowling ball. Seriously, however...daily brushing and even a light wipe-down is helpful. But it is not the same as washing and rinsing during the dark of the moon.

I don't think the chemicals "penetrate" the leather the same way dirt might. The cleaner element of it is for getting (regular) dirt out of creases, crevices, stitching, that sort of thing. I don't think it's supposed to pull microscopic abrasives out of like some kind of clay bar for shoes. But what do I know?

Originally Posted by DWFII

Click to expand...

Not enough suction...you need something that will lift a bowling ball.

This is similar to advice that I received as a freshman back in college from older pals while we were at a roadtrip party at Smith.

It was good advice then, so I have no reason to question you.


- B

Originally Posted by DWFII

Click to expand...

Well, think it through. Why do you need the Renovateur? Can't you just rub the shoe down with a rag? Won't that transfer the dirt to the cloth?

Of course it will...to a limited degree--approximately to the same degree that wiping your face with a dry cloth will remove the coal dust after a hard day in the mines. Or just wiping the spaghetti sauce off a plate before putting it back in the cupboard.

But what actually happens? In the case of your face, some dust comes off on the cloth. But, even if only by virtue of the oils that your skin naturally has, much of the dirt will remain, embedded in those oils, and most of that will end up in the creases of your skin.


Thanks for your explanations, DW. I use Lexol myself.

Not to take this off tangent, but doesn't your explanation I quoted above speak against the great american tradtion of using toilet paper?

Originally Posted by srivats

Click to expand...

Not to take this off tangent, but doesn't your explanation I quoted above speak against the great american tradtion of using toilet paper?

Shall I answer?

Let me know.


- B

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

Shall I answer?

Let me know.


- B

You seem to be in good form today.

Originally Posted by voxsartoria

Click to expand...

Shall I answer? Let me know. - B
Please do...although I admit to having a momentary dizzy spell as the word "bidet" flashed behind my eyes like a cue card.