If your shoeshine is explosive/flamable, shouldent this discussion be moved to military equipment?!
All of this reminds that my father(Lt. Colonel Ret.) hates people who dont shine their shoes...He is sort of obsessive with heaving his shoes shined and has a shoeshine kit next to his bed....

hehe, yeah... i have these little instant shine wipes i carry around for my JROTC friends when they don't shine their boots... i hate when they look bad

man you remind me of...well, me. I lit my polish on fire on top of a towel, and the damn tin tipped over. Towel caught on fire, and I dowsed the SOB in water....now there's black kiki splattered on my wall

haha... yeah the can is flammable... thast how i about burnt my house down cause i was tryin to get the damn thing in a plate of water and completely missed it... it kinda sucked

Some of you guys are hopeless :P ! Setting the shoe polish on fire? Steel wool? Can I point out this is LEATHER we are talking about here?

Too much abuse and the leather will deteriorate on you and you are out one each pair of boots. CrazyCadet142, by all means use the Parade Gloss as it’s possibly the best thing that Kiwi ever made. Cold water and a soft cloth (try an old T-Shirt) are all you need to polish boots (presuming they are smooth leather ones).

You need to watch out how much you use saddle soap as I have found that it tends to dry out the leather too much over time. I quit using it and switched to Lexol-pH, which is a bit milder, and works to preserve the leather - it also comes in very small containers so you can try it out without buying the 1 liter bottles ). Most Tack and Feed stores carry it (I use it on my saddles and bridles too).

What do you ride, Gunner13? Up till last Wednesday I had me a nice sleek one horsepower 16.5 hand Paint with silver racing stripes.

haha... yeah... but what do you do when you get a pair of boots w/ old polish caked on them? ugh

If i dident know better id think your army is too darn tidy and clean to go to war....Every time i see american soldiers i envy your uniforms and style....We had no time to develop that....I read in some book about military psycology that the Israeli Army is the only example of a non-diseplend, untidy yet regular army to have major sucses.....

Redneck: Noramally I ride either of two thoroughbred my wife and I own (I'm too tall for our pony) - our mare (Lolita) is 17.5 and our gelding (Gunny) is 17. Hey I'm 6' 4", so I need a larger horse (dragging your heels on the ground stirs up way too much dust. A Paint with silver racing stripes? Sounds very nice.

Sherman105 - Yeah, sometimes we do go too far with the "looking sharp” bit and it can get in the way. It has been said (accurately?) of the Israeli Army that no one and nothing can make an Israeli soldier clean up, but his NCOs will raise Hell if his weapon and equipment aren’t clean and ready for action.

CrazyCadet142: I clean them up. The point it to not let the polish and dirt build up like that - PMCS.

Got yourself some big horses there, Gunner13. I like thoroughbreds, my one remaining horse is a quarterhorse-thoroughbred cross, nice long back and good stamina (at least about 10 years ago haha, he's 32 now, haven't been able to ride him in quite a few years).