# "Fire shine" for shoes



## diplomatusa (Apr 10, 2009)

So I just recently moved to Mexico City, and I had my shoes polished on the street one day by one of those guys in the little stands that dot the downtown streets here. He shined my shoes in a manner that I've only seen soldiers use on their parade shoes/boots -- that is, putting wax polish on the shoes, and then applying a relatively low-temperature flame to the wax to melt it.

Aside from my objections to the mirror-shine look on my very non-military-issue dress shoes, does this procedure damage the leather on the shoe? As far as I can tell, it just melts the wax to leave the shine. But I'm no expert on leather.....

Thanks in advance to all.


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## IvanD (Jan 5, 2012)

Personally I wouldn't like to do it, but then again that's just me.
The more knowledgeable folk on here will probably be able to give better advice on this subject though.

I have found that Kiwi "parade gloss" doe's an excellent job.


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## Hanzo (Sep 9, 2009)

I've done it with old USMC issued boots and didn't like it then. My old Drill Instructor taught me, rather, to set the can of polish on fire and then apply it. It still liquifies it, but doesn't add the heat to the leather. 

That being said, you're talking about soaking the leather with polish. For boots you're crossing streams in, it works, but I wouldn't do it with quality shoes. 

Let's look at the purpose. In boots, the idea is to get the polish to soak in deeper. I think, in your case, you're trying to get a mirror shine. Even when setting my boots on fire, I still had to finish the polish with a brush and rag, so I don't think you're gaining anything as far as finish goes.

In short, if you're trying to waterproof your shoes, go for it. If you want them to look good, it won't help, and it'll probably hurt the health of the shoes.


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## diplomatusa (Apr 10, 2009)

Right on -- thanks very much for the feedback. I've since told the shoe shiners to hold off on the fire. I never really liked being able to see my reflection in my shoes, anyhow.


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## poorboy (Feb 23, 2012)

Burn shining is used to help even out gouges in your polish and is a shortcut to a mirror shine. I used to do it many years ago, and as far as I could tell, it did not damage the leather.

Continuous burn shining will cause your black polish to develop a slightly greyish tinge if done too much. The polish also dries up and you can develop checkering in the polish because the flame evaporates away the naptha or turpentine in the polish. This only happens though after a couple of hundred coats of polish, (Not an unrealistic number of coats if you are military).

With the availability of cheap heat guns, burn shining isn't as popular as it used to be. Nowadays, you can use a heat gun to melt the polish without adding a dirty flame full of carbon to your boots.


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Yeah. I'm gonna set fire to my Edward Green's. :icon_headagainstwal


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

And the U.S. military standards for shoes and boots never specified a mirror finish, anyway. It was just one more level of stress that the Drill Sergeants could apply to the trainees. I never polished my boots beyond a good brushing in the twenty-nine years I served. I tried a little harder on the low quarters but never to the extent that one could shave in the toes' reflection. I always considered such nonsense on a par with starching a field uniform. And eventually the Army outlawed that practice, too.


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## Miket61 (Mar 1, 2008)

The only time I've ever had it done the guy lit the polish in the tin. I think I'd panic if I were given an unexpected hotfoot.

Fortunately, I was getting the shoes polished to attend the funeral of a former commander of Arlington National Cemetery. I'm sure she appreciated the effort.


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## JerseyJohn (Oct 26, 2007)

Sounds like what used to be called "candling" - holding the wax-coated shoe over a heat source to melt the wax and drive off the solvents so that all that was left was a pure, smooth wax coating. Some would use a hair dryer, which is probably safer.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Oldsarge said:


> And the U.S. military standards for shoes and boots never specified a mirror finish, anyway. It was just one more level of stress that the Drill Sergeants could apply to the trainees. I never polished my boots beyond a good brushing in the twenty-nine years I served. I tried a little harder on the low quarters but never to the extent that one could shave in the toes' reflection. I always considered such nonsense on a par with starching a field uniform. And eventually the Army outlawed that practice, too.


LOL...but alas, a mirror shine on your boots and/or low quarters was daily fare for members of certain ceremonial/elite units such as SAC's Elite Guard and pretty much every other HQ force protection unit I had any occasion to interact with. Though, admittedly, those shoe shines did degrade substantially during field operations! If you should ever find yourself at Andrews AFB, take a look at the feet of the 89th MAW's force protection squadron members, but protect your eyes from the glare, don your sunglasses first!


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

LOL! Well the Air Force always lived better than we did, except for those deeply respected and hallowed officers who acted as FAC's. We knew most of them weren't used to the mud the way we were and the more refined members of the Army NCO corps always tried to cut them a little slack. After all, when you really want help, really fast, there's nothing like the growl of an A-10 coming up from behind you!


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## Flanderian (Apr 30, 2008)

Oldsarge said:


> LOL! Well the Air Force always lived better than we did


We sure did! And by intent!

Near the end of my enlistment, I was running out of regulation footwear, and didn't want to spend a penny on service shoes. So, I had my folks send me a pair of civie shoes purchased before my service, after carefully studying the applicable regs. They were vaguely Italianate, made from crushed grain black calf, and were low cut 3 eyelet balmorals with a slightly squared toe. Darned if they still didn't conform to regs! Had so much fun wearing them with my fatigues!

:icon_jokercolor:


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