Quote:
Originally posted by Nick T.
A thought about ?firing" your boots. Back in ?52 my first issue had one pair of brogans with smooth leather and another with rough leather. We were told to put a thick layer of wax on the smooth boots and a very thick layer on the rough boots, and to then use a Zippo to melt the wax. On the smooth boots it melted the wax into the pores of the new leather, and on the rough boots it singed off some of the fuzz as well as filling the leather. I only did it a couple of times on the smooth leather, but the rough boots needed several firings. After the first few days most guys rough boots had mirror toes!
This still works on new shoes, but I?m waiting for somebody else to try it on their car.
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Spit shining your boots is an daily fact of life in the CF(Canadian Armed Forces). Only Kiwi black polish and polishing cloth is allowed to be used on crown issued boots and shoes.
The method you are referring to is known as "Burn Polish", by using a open flame to the flammable polish you are virtually smoothing out the wax in the polish, but at the same time removing much of the solvent to give the polish less motbility(if that is a word !) and faster set in time. This method is not allowed to be practiced by new recruits, but more seasoned soldiers will use it. I think this is the only difference between Kiwi's Professional line and their retail version of shoe polishes is the reduced solvent. To reduce the solvent in the polish I just set my entire tin of retail Kiwi a flame just to remove a certain amount of solvent and then snuff out the flame to obtain a reduced solvent based polish which will build up and dry faster than the original polish. I don't think car wax work in the same manner as the solvent and oils are needed to hold the protective ingredients together. Hope this helps !