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Polish Your Shoes

Slickman

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Seen a lot of questions on how to polish shoes, so I thought I'd explain the procedure seen is this infamous shoe shine video. Please let me know if I made any mistakes. Step 1: Remove Shoe Laces (If they are leather laces, I believe you may leave them in to be nourished by the polish) Step 2: Use a horsehair brush to remove any superficial dust and dirt on the shoe Step 3: Apply a dab of leather cleaner/conditioner to cloth and apply to shoe (I use either Saphir's Renomat for deep clean, or Renovateur for deep condition) Step 4: Use a small horsehair brush to apply cream polish to shoe (I use Saphir's MDO Cream Pommadier) Step 5: Use a horsehair brush to even out cream polish and remove excess Step 6: Use a cloth to remove excess cream polish Step 7: Apply a few daps of water to cloth and apply matching COLOR wax polish to shoe (I use Saphir's MDO Pate Luxe) Step 8: Reapply a dab of water to cloth and apply NEUTRAL wax polish to shoe (I use Saphir's MDO Pate Luxe) Step 9: Apply a dab of water to horsehair brush and use to even out wax polish and remove excess. Reapply dabs of water as needed to build up glaze Step 10: Apply a dab of water to cloth and buff shoes to a nice glaze, reapply water until desired glaze is achieved Step 11: Re-lace shoe Step 12: Repeat for other shoe of the pair All Saphir products can be found here: Valmour Glass Solvent Dispenser can be found here: Micro-Tools
 

entrero

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no need for another shoe polish thread.

/thread
 

BlackShoes

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Aug 16, 2010
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I've been looking for that dispenser ever since I saw that video.
 

Makoto Chan

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Oct 10, 2010
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Isnt there a point at which you're supposed to wait ten minutes?
confused.gif
 

SpallaCamiccia

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I only polish mines one time with neutral polish.


Do I act bad?
 

Surly

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This will probably sound like a stupid question, but how does he wrap the red cloth around his fingers and then secure it?
 

Threadbearer

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Originally Posted by Slickman
Seen a lot of questions on how to polish shoes, so I thought I'd explain the procedure seen is this infamous shoe shine video.
Despite all the editing, the video appears to present all the steps in real time. Just over 3 minutes per shoe. That's pretty amazing to me.
 

alphaO888

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Does anyone know where I can find the small cloths that these shoe shine guys wrap around their fingers? I DON'T want the buff cloths...
 

dragon8

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Originally Posted by Threadbearer
Despite all the editing, the video appears to present all the steps in real time. Just over 3 minutes per shoe. That's pretty amazing to me.

That is amazing-3 minutes per shoe. That would take over 30 minutes per shoe for me.
 

Greggers

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You know what would be sweet? A copy of the original video from Garra Style, with the music behind it. Sadly, that version seems to no longer exist. The combo of the music and shoeshine was pretty snappy, and made the whole thing a little more entertaining.
 

retozimmermann

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Originally Posted by alphaO888
Does anyone know where I can find the small cloths that these shoe shine guys wrap around their fingers? I DON'T want the buff cloths...
Cut up old cotton t-shirts or shirts. If you want to make it a bit more difficult, take the sewing machine and zig-zag around the whole thing. But honestly I think that's already overkill.

If you're against recycling, then go buy new cotton, wash it a number of times, and then cut it up. I'd be surprised if someone sold these exact shoe-shine-strips and I'd wager a bet that if they did, the price would be too high :)
 

jack220

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Do you have to use Wax (Saphir Pate Luxe etc), or can you just use Cream (Saphir MDO Cream)?

Can you just use shoe cream and buff till shine without wax?
 

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