Q&A for How to Polish Shoes

Applying acetone will strip the polish without harming the leather, just be sure to use a leather conditioner once the polish is removed.

If you are attempting a high gloss, long lasting shine, it will take about an hour, as there are many steps and the polish must be allowed to dry in between coats.

Use a hard bristle brush and a suede eraser. Brush it in one direction first and then use the suede eraser. You may also use a pencil eraser. Shampooing the suede also helps.

It's best to send them to a professional cobbler to do it, and this is often cheaper than buying a new pair.

Just build up layers until it looks right. The more layers, the better the shine, usually.

Just put the polish on a rag.

Use wax every alternate use and use cream after many polishes. The creams are meant to be applied before the wax, as the wax protects the shoe and the cream nourishes it.

From personal experience, you shouldn't polish them. Dress shoes currently in use by the American military are gloss-coated, and shining them in the way discussed here would actually un-shine them. Just clean them with water or Windex and a soft cloth and you will be looking good for inspection.

First build up layers with normal shoe polish, then if you want you can use parade gloss or stick with normal polish. Both if done right will provide a high gloss shine.

Visually it only lasts a short while because shoes get scuffed easily, but the shoes will be protected for a long time, potentially years if you polish them regularly.

In order to prevent getting polish on a customer's socks, you should place cards between their shoes and socks. These could be cheap playing cards or business cards. Just slide the cards between their socks and shoes before starting the process of cleaning and polishing, and remove them after the process is finished.

About an hour, depending on how much shine you want. The more layers you add, the more time you have to wait for it to dry, so it can take some time if you want them to be really shiny.

It isn't necessary, but not cleaning the brush will eventually lead to it becoming hard and unusable. You can easily solve this by cleaning the brush.

When I was in the ATC I found that there is no 'quick fix' for bulling parade shoes/boots. Patience, water and cotton rag is the only way. A lot more expensive than other polishes is Saphir medaille d'or pate de Luxe which you can buy online, pricey but an excellent quality polish. Well worth the money.

Yes, stroke the brush against a towel to remove old polish. Do not wash. Have two brushes, one light hair for light colored shoe and the other dark hair for dark shoes. Don’t use the dark hair brush on light shoes, for it will streak the dark polish onto the shoe.