Thursday, April 14, 2011
Video: Polishing Cordovan Shoes
In this ten minute video (edited from the 25 minutes that were required for the actual shine) KeaLani Lada of San Francisco's A Shine & Co. demonstrates how to polish cordovan shoes or boots.
Following boning, a coat of Renovateur conditioner and edge dressing, the relatively hard surface of cordovan is polished with two coats of wax. Had KeaLani been shining calf shoes or boots she would have used two coats of cream polish instead, or one coat of cream and one wax.
When time is an issue the first couple of steps in KeaLani's shine, boning and conditioning, will produce a reasonable gleam on cordovan that has been cared for regularly. Those two steps can literally be done in five or six minutes.
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11 comments:
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Will,
I quite enjoyed this post (which is not to say I don't enjoy the rest of your posts!). It certainly reinforced my desire for a nice cordo boot.
I'd like to get your take on how frequently one should undertake a regular moisturing/shining regimen on calf shoes. I have a pair of calf monkstraps that I try to polish and moisturize as often as I can, but they appear to be developing a bit of dryness on the uppers (don't know if this is a wax buildup issue or what). Nevertheless, I'd like to restore them a bit and am curious how often I should undertake a regimen of Reno and waxes and creams.
Best,
Alex ('elgreco' on SF)
Alex, my shoes are shined every second day. And when he was King of Hollywood, Clark Gable used to polish a week's worth of shoes each Saturday morning.
Renovateur every week should be the minimum.
Will-
Thakns for the video. I'm curious about your comment re: shell vs. calf. I remember being surprised by a comment KeaLani made on a recent ASW podcast. She said that, for a calf shoe, she would use either cream or wax, but not both. I think you followed up on that, and she said again that she wouldn't put wax on top of cream. That surprised me (I've been doing one coat of each for ages), but I've recently started following her advice.
Is that actually her advice? I'd like to sort this question out once and for all.
Cheers,
Larry
Interesting. I use Eddie's at Grand Central in Manhattan. For cordovan, I just ask them to spritz with water and buff--no wax, no cream. Once a year or so I'll ask for a coat of wax.
Larry, I have her polish my shoes the same way you do it. Left to her own devices she only uses cream, but using cream alone leaves my shoes looking about the same after the shine that they did before it. It takes wax to get a real shine.
Lovely Pair..which brand is it? Thanks!
I suddenly feel rather inadequate....
I'm heading back to SFO to get my 60+ pairs shined by her! I can't find anything that good here in Rome.
If I had to do it myself I might get close but I'd only do two pair in four hours and have a sore shoulder...
Will,
Great video. Quick question: one of my shell cordovan shoes is visibly "drier" than the other (it has less of a shine and is less oily to the touch). I have used Venetian Shoe Cream but there doesn't seem to be any major effect. Any recommendations?
The boots are G&G.
Huang, try some Renovateur.
"Alex, my shoes are shined every second day."
God you guys suffer for your art. I have lots of shoes (probably about 40 pairs of dress shoes) and some have gone for months without polishing. The only disaster I've ever had was with a pair of patent evening shoes which I didn't wear for a long time and hadn't left coated in vaseline. The patent finish flaked off. On cordovan I thought dry brushing was the preferred approach.
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