No idea why
- Thread starter Garno
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MARK.B.
Established Member
You really must get out more my friend 
Surely there comes a time when you say 'I just need a new pair of boots'..
AFFF
Established Member
Amateur! Didn't use the essential tool. A toothbrush, 2 required - 1 for removing dirt from welts and 1 for applying polish. Also he didn't polish the instep. My old RM Colour Sergeant would be spinning in his grave if he saw this 
ever since being in the services I have been obsessed by cleaning shoes. The wife thinks I'm mad but I find it strangely therapeutic. Of course the next level of shoe cleaning is the art of bulling. Cotton wool wads (never use a duster as the fabric is too coarse and will scratch the polish) Kiwi parade gloss polish and 2 drops of aftershave in the water! Yes, I must get out more .....
ever since being in the services I have been obsessed by cleaning shoes. The wife thinks I'm mad but I find it strangely therapeutic. Of course the next level of shoe cleaning is the art of bulling. Cotton wool wads (never use a duster as the fabric is too coarse and will scratch the polish) Kiwi parade gloss polish and 2 drops of aftershave in the water! Yes, I must get out more .....
AES
Established Member
Amateur! Didn't use the essential tool. A toothbrush, 2 required - 1 for removing dirt from welts and 1 for applying polish. Also he didn't polish the instep. My old RM Colour Sergeant would be spinning in his grave if he saw this
Yeah, but on new boots and before starting the bulling don't forget the old spoon to spread the polish thickly over the toecaps, then the lighter to set fire to it. The cottonwool pad and COLD water comes afterwards (bloody brownjob amateurs).
Droogs
Not the Sharpest Moderator in the box
I once had to bull & Brasso the hob nails on the soles of all the Ammo boots in the QMs store as a Restiction of Privilages (Jankers) all 240 pairs I was a bad lad in my yoof. This punishment was for me and a mate deciding we wanted chips after being out on the lash and breaking into the cookhouse to make some at half 3 in the morning
I was a bad lad in my yoof. This punishment was for me and a mate deciding we wanted chips after being out on the lash and breaking into the cookhouse to make some at half 3 in the morningnovocaine
Established Member
my wife won't let me polish her boots anymore.
she handed them to me and said "clean these"
what she got back was (in her words) "to damn shiny."
she handed them to me and said "clean these"
what she got back was (in her words) "to damn shiny."
MARK.B.
Established Member
Gentlemen you can now forget all the posts on sharpening your stuff because the next big debate will be on "how to get the best shine on your shoes" .
My Dad served 40 year's in the Senior Service and would often say to us kid's "you can tell a lot about a man by how he care's for his shoes" because to get a good standard you have to put the effort in . It was my priviledge to polish the one's he wore on his final voyage .
because the next big debate will be on "how to get the best shine on your shoes" .My Dad served 40 year's in the Senior Service and would often say to us kid's "you can tell a lot about a man by how he care's for his shoes" because to get a good standard you have to put the effort in . It was my priviledge to polish the one's he wore on his final voyage
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AES
Established Member
I once had to bull & Brasso the hob nails on the soles of all the Ammo boots in the QMs store as a Restiction of Privilages (Jankers) all 240 pairs
"Jankers" (same terminology, funny how some things are the same) for us was 3 hours "in the blerdy cooooooookharse" (the DI concerned was some sort of "foreign chappy from oop Norf" - i.e. North of Watford)! What was good about that though was after you spent 3 hours up to your armpits in hot grease-scummy water, the the duty cook, if he was a decent feller, had a metal bowl full of fresh chips for you! IF you could face them - I always could!
But I must say that clean shoes really is - still - a thing with me. My good lady doesn't complain about hers being too shiny, but after I used - accidentally I hasten to say, 'onest - black Kiwi polish on a pair of her (very dark) navy blue court shoes she's strangely reluctant to ask me to clean her shoes nowadays.
But yeah, definitely, clean shiny shoes ARE an important part of decent turnout IMO.
novocaine
Established Member
These days i wear work boots or canvas shoes but heading out to a posh do (works Christmas do etc.) My boots will shine with the best of them. A few of ours are ex sardines, if my boots aren't better or at leadt to par with theres i consider it a failure, and yes they do make mention.
I still polish my shoes before I go anywhere, I even give the boots I wear in the shed a polish although not as frequently.
I have 1 brush for putting the polish on, a second brush for removing/polishing and finally a cloth for polishing/shining.
@AES I remember with fear the "hot polishing/bulling" days although we heated the spoon up with the lighter but we always bulled up the whole of the boot and not just the toecap. Big downside with that was the cracking of the polish when you put the boot on.
I have 1 brush for putting the polish on, a second brush for removing/polishing and finally a cloth for polishing/shining.
@AES I remember with fear the "hot polishing/bulling" days although we heated the spoon up with the lighter but we always bulled up the whole of the boot and not just the toecap. Big downside with that was the cracking of the polish when you put the boot on.
I don't know about extreme polishing but I'm pretty miffed at the built in obsolescence of modern boots. The PU used for the sole on pretty much all boots, even quality ones, has a very limited life expectancy. They absorbe moisture and just turn to powder. This is what happened to my Meindl boots a few weeks ago. Meindl say it's perfectly normal wear and tear. The pair of boots that these replaces had lasted over 30 years. These just five.
This is how I got home
This is how I got home
ooerr I've got a pair of those...
An old boy I knew used to put a new pair of shoes in a last he'd mounted on his workbench and hammer sand into the leather soles. As a lad I watched him do this and he'd tell me it made the soles last longer.
Memories , what good ones you guys have brought back Bulling boots since I was 13 in the ACF, learnt from an ex C/Sgt from the Guards, when I was in my first regiment we had 3 pairs of boots, 2 standard army issue and the 3rd was the old style ammo boots with 120 nails in the sole. Many a time I or someone else went base over apex on the parade groundwhen coming to a Halt. When the army started issuing the boots combat high, they were a real pita to bull , so kept my old boots for best. Oh what happy days !
Karl ex Queensman.
Bulling boots since I was 13 in the ACF, learnt from an ex C/Sgt from the Guards, when I was in my first regiment we had 3 pairs of boots, 2 standard army issue and the 3rd was the old style ammo boots with 120 nails in the sole. Many a time I or someone else went base over apex on the parade groundwhen coming to a Halt. When the army started issuing the boots combat high, they were a real pita to bull , so kept my old boots for best. Oh what happy days !Karl ex Queensman.
Droogs
Not the Sharpest Moderator in the box
In the last year, I have actually worn out a pair of sandals that have never gone past my front gate
