Simple effective way to shine black service boots, military, firefighting boot, or peace officer boots. Supplies; kiwi boot shine, soft cloth for application, lighter or heat gun, soft cloth or cotton balls for finish shine.
A hair dryer should be good enough. Heat gun can be pretty intense and may dry out the leather underneath the surface. If you use a heat gun you probably shouldn't get any closer than one foot and keep the gun movie because it can set things on fire.
I am a police cadet and it used to take months to get close to a mirror shine. Now I can do it in less than an hour! The only issue is a) don't use a heat gun if you have good quality boots and b) you may have to do it slightly more often, e.g once every three weeks instead of four.
@@sm0ll 100% cotton cloth. Extremely important. Get a "Selvyt" or a "Saphir" polishing cloth. Regular kiwi black works fine but if you want to use something a little more premium, I would suggest Saphir Pate De Luxe or Saphir Medaille Dor. Make sure your cloth is damp with warm water, and wrap the cloth tightly around your index and middle finger so there are no creases. Search up how to "water bull" boots. That's how you give them a high glossy mirror shine.
I would highly recommend NOT aiming a heat gun at your head. Yknow, unless you want to mop your scalp from off the floor. Shits used to apply to wallpaper to drywall and shit, not dry your manly locks
I’ve shined my boots for years with a white t shirt and I️ mean they looked nice but never like mirrors. Since leaving the military I️ am now in the police academy and needed to shine my boots a lot better and used this method. It works. (Minus the blow dryer 😉) but it totally works. Thanks for the video.
Ex-USN, back then we didn't have heat guns. We just set them on fire and blew it out quickly,. It's an art with flame, some guys went too far and ruined their boots.
No just no stop!!! Yes melting the wax before you put it on is good but you really don't want to put a heat gun on leather especially lots and lots over the lifetime of a boot!! It might look good since he put so much wax on the boot to start with and then used a blooming Heat gun to melt it into the boots but after a little bit of actual walking it's gonna look extremely bad and the method he used will dry out the leather and they will split!!! Where's this coming from??
the trick is to have a pair of boots for inspection and a pair of boots for after inspection that are shiny but not spit shined because the spit shine is easily scratched and cracked. looks like tiny pieces of obsidian flaking off your boots.
@@lewismcknight2060 Yes. It dries the leather out, if you arent treating your leather. If you are stripping down your boot once every 1-2 weeks and moisturizing the boots between applications, your boot will be fine. Also, it depends on your agency. With my agency, I get 3 pairs of boots per year, so I have no concerns about the boot cracking. This also isnt something you need to do every day for MOST professions that require a good polish. I work in law enforcement and every two weeks I lay a fresh coat of polish and scrub to a near-mirror finish and then lightly heat with a heat gun and polish to a mirror shine. Throughout the week I just keep the boot clean. At the start of the second week I use a touch-up polish sponge (sold by kiwi) to bring back a bit of shine (no where close to a mirror shine) which lasts me the 2nd week and then I strip down and start again. For parades, funerals, promotions etc, I will use hairspray and get a a parade ready mirror finish, which usually happens once every 2 or so years, and I keep a separate pair of boots for those occasions.
Thanks for the tip, I never thought about using my 2 temp Heat Gun. I have to get my new Corcoran jump boots ready, for my new appointment to the American Legion Honor Guard. I didn't want to ruin a $180 pair of jump boots with a lighter, since I haven't mirror polished a pair of shoes or boots in over 35 years.
Congratulations on joining the American Legion Honor Guard. I just recently joined too and wanted a quick guide to shine my boots. It’s been a looong time since boot camp.
Back in boot camp when I was in the military we had to do it the old fashioned way. Polish, water, spit, elbow grease, and a white t-shirt. I polished my boots the same way while going through the fire academy in 2000. I still do it the same way today as I did back then. I guess if this works for anyone who tries out this method more power to you. 👍
In boot camp we were taught the non lighter method for training but were told about the lighter method because that's what most people do in the fleet.
When I use to polish my drill boots I didn’t use any of that we didn’t have that stuff it was tiny bit of polish and a little dip of water on a shammy just doing little circles not to small cos u will be there all day and not to big as you won’t get the glass finish
This way you destroy the haix system, the sunreflex system. A leather shoe as described in the maintenance instructions from haix but also from lowa and mindl should never be placed near a high source. This destroys the leather and the effect of the leather and the special system for the moisture-replenishing effect. It also ensures that sweat feet and cold feet get faster. It is only possible if it is not recommended. Do you want to treat and polish shiny shoes with haix leather? These types of shoes cannot be compared to old-fashioned army boots.
Nice video. Very informative. But please help me; I can't get a shine on my leather work boots to save my soul. I'v tried everything known to man and experimented with every technique and medium for years, right out of the box boots and old boots. Is it me or is it the leather? It's almost as if the supple leather is too porous and the wax or polishing oils never completely dry. I generally wear Red Wings, Carolina's, and ThouroughGood's. When I was a kid in the 70's and 80's, they would always shine up to a mirror finish. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
have to say I was pretty disappointed when I checked the "spit and polish" vids.. I myself had done this exercise MANY moons ago, .. I was in the army cadets and on one of the annual troop inspections the regular Army lieutenant Colonel was trawling between the ranks as he does (I was in the middle rank,) and after his gazing up and down every lad he was by now past me by two others when he suddenly stopped in his tracks, his own SM nearly barging into his back, when he actually started to trek BACKWARDS... his SM also beating a hasty backwards shuffle.. upon reaching myself he eyed me up and down, then asked me "who did your boots??" when I said "Myself Sir!" he just nodded calmly, said "Very good job.." and resumed his troop inspection.. Must say though , I had a terrific mentor/tutor.. never used the hairdryer, just spit and polish all the way.. Cherry Blossom, though other brands are available.. lol
This is the most effective way to get a great shine and in very little time. Exactly how I used to shine my boots in the Army minus basic training, you gotta do it the old school way there lol sorry, used to have to do it the old school way :/ I guess now the only boots I woulda been shining if I stayed in would be my Corcoran jump boots lol
Im not really worried about the hate. These boots are rated to fight wildfires. The total time the boots are exposed to heat is about 6 seconds. Plus iv used the heat gun for over a year and it has yet to damage the boots.
Cameron Baker my corporal used to do this but after painting beeswax on his boots then bulled on top its one of the done things in the GUARDS division Also 6th Airborne division wich my regiment the Royal Irish Regiment was part of . Check out the brigade of guards bulling and bees waxing boots on you tube this is for public duties for Her Majesty the Queen Guards men were charged under the army act 1955 for good order and disipline for being on parade in front of Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth The Queen Mother with sub standard boots. Could be 10 days loss of pay and privileges and show parades 0500hrs and 2300hrs in The morning full no 2 uniform and dress uniform at night poss different today but that was somthing you never wanted to happen all the guys at public duties had mirror shine on ther boots
Read More The old hands always teach the short cuts if you want a brilliant shine melt bees wax and paint it on to the boots but must have a polish shine first when wax is dry and hardened use your heat gun it lighter to Smooth the wax then coat the boot with kiwi polish bull with water and polish check out the guards polished boots on you tube you will see the difference if the boots wernt up to standard HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN MOTHER used to tell the Commanding officer a guys boots were not good guess who spent the night in the guard room cells ie jail
If you are talking about the pores in the leather the only thing you can do is put some wax on it using a cotton shirt and apply with small circles it takes a while, but it's a lot better to use a fire shine after that
This works until you start walking in them. Heating them like this creates a hard surface that flakes off rather quickly and the boots look dull again not long after. Not to mention this ruins the leather quickly and you'll be needing a new pair in no time. Best just to stick to the old fashioned methods because they get shiny enough without bulling them. These are work boots after all, not parade boots.
I would never use a flame any where near Kiwi shoe polish - the tin or shoes - it's oil (petrol) based and flamable... The tin should of been well away from the flame to avoid fire and used in a well ventalated area! A Hair dryer would be better not too hot, even when the polish is dry it could catch on fire with the heat gun! Hair dryers can be brough any where even pre-loved. Bewere you Americans, when travelling overseas, please ensure it can use 110-250Volts 50/60Hz then bonza mate! Other wise when you plug it into an Australian GPO, bang bang boom goes the hair dryer! Lots of smoke and melted plastic, then its buggered!
Why do people apply heat to their leather!!!??? It can cause damage to the boot!!! It’s not hard to spit shine and spit shine doesn’t damage your boot any!! Just look up how to do it, it doesn’t take more than 10 minutes!!!
I have been trying to do this for 4 days now and they are exactly the same. I have 511 boots o don't know if that makes the difference but I am beyond frustrated that I can't get them to look any different.
whats the brand of your shoes? here in the philippines, My firefighter comrades have that type of shoes, as I can remember a Canadians Firefighters donated it to them.
I picked up a pair of gripfast 14 eye combat boots and they did this method but now the leather is crinkly up at the toe. Are the boots ruined? I use dr martins wax but i want to sell these boots and not sure if and how to market them. Thanks
You should not use a lighter, hair dryer, or a heat gun at all it doesn't give a good as a shine, and you will break down the leather faster, use water
Do not use Kiwi on your own Haix Airpower XR1. Use the manufacturers recommended polish. Not sure if it's cause his are from 2015 and they maybe changed the material since then but you will damage your boot and won't get that nice polish you see in the video.
It's funny I was thinking about getting those boots because I had a pair for Fire/EMS. The trainer at our site said they wouldn't shine. I'm gonna favorite this.
Brett Evan i use kiwi boot shine 1 st 2 layers... put 1st layer on(i put it on with the brush that comes i the kit), let it dry a bit take a lighter to it. do it again a 2nd time. then i use the kiwi parade gloss. 1st layer of gloss with a kiwi cloth i rub in until it starts to glaze then the 2nd layer i use gloss and some water. after that i use just the cloth and water.
