Shining boots for academy

[bigred1]

Lincoln wax, heat gun, 75/25 water/ alcohol, cotton balls or old t shirt.

all these new style boots don't really shine well. I wore my BCT boots and Corcrans to the Academy. I will reiterate what has already been said above that you need to strip all the manufacture crap off the boots.

heat the boot to open up the leather, light heat on the wax. you need to really work in that base or your boots will never really shine. Each layer of wax should be lighter than the previous layer. Now once you think that your boots are super shiny, take a cotton ball and run a coat of mop'n glow over the area. Mop'n glow is not for shinning your boot but for putting a nice protective layer over the finish.

Do not use edge dressing or any of those stupid touch up bottles. That stuff always looks fake and seems to harm leather.

[kielbasavw]

Go around the corner and pay a kid a nickle to shine em up for you.... oh wait this is 2013.. we don't condone to child slave labor

[trob]

Dont dare go and pay to get your boots done somewhere before the academy. Tell all your mates the same. The Tact staff will ask if you did it yourself, you cant lie, so they will make sure the boots lose that $10 shine you were so proud of. Then you will be expected to have shined boots the next day. The point of the academy is to work hard and not cut corners.

Whats also funny is if your boots are looking like glass, and the guy next to you looks like trash, you will probably get smoked for not helping him with his.

Enjoy!!!!

not my experience at all.

we wore our uniforms to class, not PT or anything active....running shoes and BDU's were the norm for active wear.

[Island671]

USCG Chief located in Rohnert Park. If you need help, let me know and we'll link up. Ill SHOW you how rather than explain.

[AR15Man]

That's how I learned...Well done Chief!

[vgourdik]

Fig and Olympic in Downton Los Angeles @ the car wash n/w corner ask for Oscar...awesome mirror shine for $6

[jmatt511]

Lincoln wax, heat gun, 75/25 water/ alcohol, cotton balls or old t shirt.

all these new style boots don't really shine well. I wore my BCT boots and Corcrans to the Academy. I will reiterate what has already been said above that you need to strip all the manufacture crap off the boots.

heat the boot to open up the leather, light heat on the wax. you need to really work in that base or your boots will never really shine. Each layer of wax should be lighter than the previous layer. Now once you think that your boots are super shiny, take a cotton ball and run a coat of mop'n glow over the area. Mop'n glow is not for shinning your boot but for putting a nice protective layer over the finish.

Do not use edge dressing or any of those stupid touch up bottles. That stuff always looks fake and seems to harm leather.

My academy was in 1980, but above sounds similar to what I used to do.

Clean off the leather and then wipe with alcohol. Let dry completely. Use Lincoln wax (the best there is). Apply liberally. Use a wooden match and lightly go over the entire surface covered in polish. Use a 100% cotton t-shirt (not the one you'll be wearing later). Dip in water and buff in a circular pattern. Repeat several times and a nicley mirrored shine will develope that was resistant to cracks and creases (at least for me). Get an extra pair of shoes and do the same thing. Have one pair for morning inspection and another to change into for drills.

[TStewartFan]

First of all, good luck in the Academy!

When I went through my academy, a buddy of mine couldn't get his boots to shine very well. He actually finally broke down and took them to a shoe shop to get them done, I dropped mine off as well. When we came back a few days later my boots looked great! My buddies, not so much. The shop actually gave him back his shoes and didn't charge him for the work as even they couldn't get a good enough shine on them. He only got jammed up once in the academy for his boots, and after a brief explanation of everthing he tried to get shined, the Sgt dropped the issue.
I hope you don't have one of these difficult pairs of boots as my buddy did.

C2

[Jonnyboy182]

5.11's are awful boots for the academy. They are great for when you're workin, but terrible for the academy! I initially got a pair o 5.11's and after seeing how the "shine" didnt show up-no matter how I tried, I got a pair of Danners.

Advice? Return them and get a pair of full leather REAL leather boots that can be shined. You are going to get drilled in the academy daily, dont give them ammo to "notice" you.

[BigLL]

just wait until you go into motors and got to shine those boots!

[SxB]

That's pretty funny. I had the same issue with my boots. How many coats have you applied? What method are you using to shine them? Mine took a while to really start looking good.
BigLL hit the nail on the head, wait until EVOC.

[Dstompe]

Alright guys, boots showed up a couple days ago and I've stripped them down and put a couple coats of polish on tonight. Already way better than the magnums. The reinforced toe makes a huge difference since they wont flex there and the polish can build up much better. I'll post up pics when I'm done with them.

And again, thanks to everyone for the help. Really appreciate it

[Rickrock1]

CG should make a sticky on one of the better boot polishing threads. Seems to come up a lot.

OP, you dont need to use any heat to get a good polish, no heat guns, no lighters. I've seen a lot of guys use this method and it just seems like a quick fix to me that always flakes or peels off.

Start with a clean boot. If it has a failed polish job on it you will need to strip the boots, I would put them under runnig HOT water and wipe off as much polish as you can with a porous towel.

Once the boot is clean and dry use a soft towel ( I like to use the small cheap baby blankets you can get at Walmart ) take the towel and one or two fingers in it and wrap it around those fingers. Apply a small amount of polish on the towel at your finger tips and rub onto boot in small circular motions. Keep applying small amounds of polish till the boot is covered.

At this point you will have a dull coat of polish on your boots. Now take the same towel and same method with fingers dip into water and continue with small circuler motions. You may need to add small amounts of polish to your prefrence. Continue and you should see a mirror shine start to develope. This process is time consuming, I have spent more than an hour to comple the process, but in the end you have a propper shine.

Another thing you can keep on hand is a kiwi quick shine sponge, you can get them at Walmart. The sponge will add a little extra shine, but I felt it also made the polish were off quicker.

Good luck!

Good tips, but I would add if stripping down to to make certain that shoes have a good dye coat.

[Garrett128]

I do the same thing as Stockton explained above. Make sure you've worn the boot and it's creased where it bends. An old cotton T-shirt, wet a small portion and squeeze out as much of the water as you can (a spray water bottle works good), use a little Kiwi at a time and work it in. Most polish should end up on the boot and not the T-shirt. I found that when you put on too much polish too fast, it'll flake later. I showed my son how to polish and nowadays, he does most my boot polishing! LOL

[Gnome]

Go pay someone who knows what they're doing, to shine your boots. You're gonna be very busy studying, and too tired when you're not studying. Have them touched up every weekend or so.

The only guys/gals that shined their own Oxfords (My Academy did not allow boots. That's changed now) were the former military types...