What shoe polish?

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2013
Posts
4,826
Location
Plymouth
Parade gloss is bad for shoes, the parafin or whatever that's in it dries out leather. The best shoe polish, in my opinion, is just standard Kiwi polish. You can get it just as shiny as parade gloss, if that's what you're going for, or you can just do the two brush method for a simple polish.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
10,163
Location
7th Level of Hell...
Parade gloss is bad for shoes, the parafin or whatever that's in it dries out leather. The best shoe polish, in my opinion, is just standard Kiwi polish. You can get it just as shiny as parade gloss, if that's what you're going for, or you can just do the two brush method for a simple polish.

^^^ this ^^^

Parade Gloss is fine to get a mirror finish and applied when the shoe has a build up of normal Kiwi Polish to stop it drying the leather out.
 
Man of Honour
Man of Honour
OP
Joined
3 May 2004
Posts
17,682
Location
Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
Woah, what a thread bump :p

I've got some Barkers like those, UberTiger. They do like to soak up the polish. I started popping tins open in shops to see what it was like and got some in John Lewis which is much softer than normal shoe polish. You can really work it into that sort of leather and control the colour. Good pair of shoes those - I got mine re-soled by Barker and they did an immaculate job. Well worth doing when you wear them out.
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jan 2008
Posts
58,898
^^^ this ^^^

Parade Gloss is fine to get a mirror finish and applied when the shoe has a build up of normal Kiwi Polish to stop it drying the leather out.

yup parade gloss is fine - you can mix in a few layers of brown polish amongst the layers of black too...
 
Associate
Joined
19 Jun 2009
Posts
1,687
Location
Central Scotland
Holy (2nd!) thread necro, Batman!

I'm ex-military, but still bull my boots for work these days. Standard Kiwi is the best imo, parade gloss not so much and cherry blossom will take whatever good you've achieved and dispose of it for you.
 
Last edited:
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,298
Location
Vvardenfell
I've always used Kiwi polish with two brushes, one to apply and one to buff off, seems to do the job nicely. I'm borderline addicted to the smell as well :D


Fifty years of doing this, and I agree. Does Cherry Blossom still exist? Because that was a good second place. Pro tip: if the polish starts to crack in the tin as it dries out, put the lidless tin in shallow boiling water until the polish melts, then let it cool and set. Don't get water in the polish though, beyond a drop or two. And spit does work with polish, but only on hardened toe-caps.
 
Back
Top Bottom