recceguy said:
Ah, I see the rumour mill is in full tilt. Care to confirm your ideas with a substantiated referral? You need none of this stuff, trust me.
A light scuffing with 0000 steel wool and a bit of alcohol. They are more than capable of being shone. Once you've lightly scuffed them shine as you would have all along. The results will be the same.
About 3 1/2 years ago, I ordered a set of those oxfords off logistikunicorp.com to wear to my civvie job. Back in my highschool/college years, I worked in a shoe store for 5 years and I got pretty good and polishing shoes, or at least I thought I did. Then these phucking things enter my life. First I had trouble getting the polish to stick, so I read a bit, learned I should apply the polish, let it sit, then buff, no go. I did the tiny circle thing with my two fingers and a moist cloth, no go. I must have made ten million little circles and all it did was numb my fingers. I even let them sit overnight with polish on, and it just flaked off into tiny little particles. So I started to cake it on and build up layers and layers........hours later and who knows how many layers, I finally got them to look like mirrors but as soon as I wore them, they cracked and flaked. I kept these bastards for about a year, wearing them in the crappiest weather, cleaning them, polishing them, over and over and over and over again. Every single time, I watched my blood, sweat and tears flake off every single fukking time I laced them up. I’m not sure what I was thinking wearing these for work because they’re ugly as sin and I’ve since thrown them out.
When I got my DEUs issued, they came with the boots made with the same God-forsaken finish those miserable oxfords were done in. Good thing for this forum because I read about the scuffing and it worked, more or less. I used 1000grit sand paper and a green Scotchbrite pad and now the polish actually sticks, though I still have yet to make them look like mirrors like the older boots. I’m tempted to take them down again and try the steel wool to see if it has a better effect. They still flake a bit in certain areas, but all the guys who’ve been around the block told me that’s pretty normal with these new things and to just keep working it in.
When I read your post, I thought to myself, there’s some sound advice so I experimented a bit and found that no matter how much alcohol I threw down my neck, it made no difference, but I found the more I drank, the less frustrating it was to polish these mother-fukkers.
