Shoe polish: thoughts, fun facts, questions

[Tobus]

Along with Nomad and others, I still prefer the military bulled finish, at varying degrees depending on the use of the shoe. However, (again, I think like most military), I avoid the Parade Gloss variant of Kiwi, sticking to the older 'standard' polish. I find the spirit in the gloss version can leave a misty finish. Personal preference I guess.

I'm quoting your reply again because I gave it some more thought over the last few days and decided to "go back to basics", as it were. I've been using the Parade Gloss variant for the last few years, and it seems to give a very crisp-looking sheen without quite so much work in the bulling process, but you had me curious as to whether I've been making the right choice. So I picked up a couple of tins of regular old Kiwi polish (brown and black).

Over the week-end I had to take my Bulldogge and drop her off for a month's stay at a K9 training camp where it was rainy and muddy. I was wearing my brown Corcoran jump boots, so they needed some cleaning up last night. I washed them off and let them dry, then used a cotton ball and some rubbing alcohol to take down the Parade Gloss wax from the heel cup and toe cap, with the intent of re-building the wax on them with regular brown Kiwi.

Side note: my wife is not a fan of polished boots, and thinks they look better when they're scuffed and worn. I compromise for her sake, and only polish/bull the heel cup and toe cap, leaving the rest of the boot just clean and brush-waxed without necessarily polishing or bulling it.

I try to keep it simple, using just an old t-shirt for building up the wax layers, then brushing with my horse-hair brushes, then bulling with another t-shirt rag. Here are the boots after cleaning, during the wax-building steps on the heels/toes:



I must say, I noticed a marked difference in the way the regular polish builds, as compared to the Parade Gloss variant. And in the bulling process, it took a bit more elbow grease, but the end result was a deeper shine with a better and more pure colour, if that makes sense. It didn't have the slight irridescence that I get from the Parade Gloss, and I could really feel the friction changing a lot more noticeably as it reached a mirror-like finish. I like it! I think you've convinced me to stick to regular old Kiwi polish.

Not a perfect job by military standards, I'm sure, but I'm happy with it.