I dont have field craft boots lol, ive only been in cadets 6 months theres not much need for some so ill try it on some shitty shoes i have!

Flamable trick... Use a hairdryer! If you turn it on your polish it will melt it nicely and you can do it with the polish on your boots/shoes and not worry about burning them!

Anyone else use Lincoln Wax? Best stuff ever! And it doesn't stink as much as Kiwi .

My steps for great shine:
1. Strip only shoes (no boots!!!) with rubbing alcohal the strongest you can find. Yes this may turn them gray/white, that's ok, it's supposed to.
2. Get some polish (Kiwi first coat usually) and rub for several hours. And I mean hours. Watch some movies. Melt it in with a hairdryer. Rub with a brush, rub with a cloth, the point of this is just to build up the layers.

Now for the real shine part (and once you've completed 1 and 2 you don't need to do them again ever)
3. Place a fairly heavy coat all over shoe, let dry while coating other shoe. Then...
4. Get polish on your cloth, dip it in water and rub in teeny tiny circles until the shine comes through.
5. And repeat.
6. Buff quickly with a piece of nylon pantyhose (get your gf to buy it if you're ashamed lol). Keep the nylon piece (cut off a part of a leg) in your pocket and carry it to inspection with you. Just before you fall in give your toes a last scrub.

Great guide, but whats your Drill Sergeant gonna say when he finds half some pantyhose in your pocket?

I wanna try that on my church-goin shoes see how it works.

We always used the melted Kiwi to put on a good layer of polish which was then brush polished. Next we used a cotton ball dampened with some water or spit and a small amount of polish. Using the small circle method of rubbing, you create a very smooth buffing surface on the cotton ball (always keep the same surface of the cotton ball in contact with the boot or shoe). Once that is attained, the cotton ball produces a great spit shine with the minumum time and effort expended. You just keep building thin layers of polish this way until you have a smooth surface that takes a high gloss shine. You can finish it off with a T-shirt buff. We found the cotton ball to be quicker than a T-shirt but to each his own.

First off, I wanna find some Lincoln Wax! I hear it's good stuff. Second, I use every method exept the panty hose. I just rub circles in the opposite direction with a clean part of the cloth(the damp one BTW). And I only put just enough polish on to cover the shoe. It forces you to rub it harder and spread it thinner, giving a glossier shine.

What about the Kiwi Xpress?

Originally Posted by airmanpatroler

What about the Kiwi Xpress?

What is this kiwi express thou speaketh of? Darest I touch my boot with it?

I like the regular ol stuff, but show me the product, (pictures) and tell me what ya did and I'll check it out. After askin some boot polish gurus

Brush shine. Easy fast, within regs. If you go to the field enough a spiy shine won't last for shit anyway.

Now that I have read this I have a few new methods to try. Here is what I do for a fairly quick high shine.

Put Kiwi on boot with my finger, yeah your finger, it is a lot easier to spread it even. Next melt it into boot with lighter or hair dryer, then take your t-shirt get it wet and rub in little circles. Last but not least finish it off with the leg of some pantyhose.

This will only work if you have already got your initial base coat of polish on them (you know the three hour polish )

Originally Posted by Rotty261

Now that I have read this I have a few new methods to try. Here is what I do for a fairly quick high shine.

Put Kiwi on boot with my finger, yeah your finger, it is a lot easier to spread it even. Next melt it into boot with lighter or hair dryer, then take your t-shirt get it wet and rub in little circles. Last but not least finish it off with the leg of some pantyhose.

This will only work if you have already got your initial base coat of polish on them (you know the three hour polish )

Ya know, just because i feel so horrible for your boots, I"m going to include some quotes from that other site.

Originally Posted by Shawn Stanford

IMPORTANT POINT: If you leave a boot or shoe spit shined for too long you will DESTROY IT!.

As you know, leather is actually the skin of a cow and a cow's skin has pores. What you're doing when you spit shine to get that smooth, glossy look is actually filling in the pores. This prevents the leather from 'breathing' and will eventually cause the leather to actually crack and flake off.

In order to avoid this, you must do the following to your spit shined shoes or boots every few months:

• Remove the laces.
• Take a soft bristled scrub brush and some plain Colgate or Barbasol shaving cream (not gel) and scrub, scrub, scrub.
• Apply a couple coats of leather dye.
• Re-shine.

Shaving cream is really just foamy soap - and a very mild soap at that. It does a good job of cleaning the leather and adding back some oils. You can also use saddle soap, but shaving cream works just fine.

Yes, you're going to have to redo that spit shine but the alternative is buying a new pair of shoes or boots every few years.

Heh, only office pogues and garret troopers have spit-shined boots; and you can't spit shine Hi-Techs. Nyah!

Speaking of boots: this method also works well to clean and recondition boots that have been doing hard, honest work in the field and are caked with mud and perhaps have to toes scuffed brown.

leather luster might shine nicely, but it looks 3000% fake and when it cracks you have to do it all over again
as opposed to lightly shining your kiwi polished boots over the damaged area in about 2 minutes and get your shine back as good as it could be before

Originally Posted by NIN

Avoid this at all costs, and personally, avoid the technique Maj Johnson mentions with the lighter. While it *looks* like it is doing you some good (ie. getting the polish places you can't get it to go on its own), if you actually get it hot enough to melt, you're cooking out the oils and waxes that make up the polish and serve to protect your leather. In other words, you're taking the protective features of the polish right out. I've had nothing but trouble with that technique.