Boot cleaning / polishing / care of

[tmbluesbflat]

They are shiney enough when they look like an Eagles *** in a Power Dive RSM Mick Austen PPCLI depot 1962

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by combat_medic:
[qb] kosstro: For an officer‘s mess dinner, the appropriate dress would be mess kit. This does not involve the wearing of spats, and the trews would cover most of the shoe. [/qb]

Mess dress for brand new officers involves spats; it is the standard CF DEU worn with white shirt and black bow tie. I thought the original poster was a new officer, I may be mistaken. They are not expected to acquire mess kit right away.

 

[bossi]

Not ALL highland regiments wear spats with their mess dress.
Many wear "diced hose" (similar to Lovatt hose, only they are checquered - different colours for different regiments).
And, in some highland regiments, the next lower acceptable form of dress for mess functions is #2 Blues, but again no spats (i.e. if you don‘t have mess kit yet - a.k.a. "Patrols").
In this case, spats are then worn with #1 Blues/Patrols (but that‘s a form of dress worn on at weddings, New Year‘s Day, or when you‘re an Aide-de-Camp).

Also, officers in many highland regiments wear brogues, not oxfords (brogues are similar to "wing tip" shoes, and have a gazillion tiny little holes all over them - to remove excess shoe polish from these holes, a Q-Tip with the cotton swab removed works well).
And, finally, the practice of wearing brogues or shoes under the spats sometimes comes as a result of not having spats big enough to fit over parade boots (aaaahhhh ... I can hear those lovely hob nails now ...) or else because they don‘t have diced hose and are only wearing hose tops (socks with the foot cut off - frugal, aye!) - and, yes - in some highland regiments boots are still the order of the day when you‘re wearing puttees (although it‘s a dying practice except for Remembrance Day parades, I still remember puttees and the annual drill competition).

Just thought I‘d better set the record straight, lest anybody be led astray ...

 

[Kitanna]

The Canadian Forces has a standard. That standard is made so that no one can achieve it. They do that so that people keep striving for the best in their uniforms as to one day hope to achieve it. No matter how shiney your boots are, the CF thinks they can always be better.. but, you can always get away with a Kiwi cloth, polish and a widdle bita spit!

 

[corporal-cam]

From my cadet experience with my prade boots (assuming it‘s similar) what you first do is get a brand new kiwi cloth and wrap it around one or 2 fingers get get a large abount of polish and rub it in until there is so much polish that the cloth grabs a bit when going over the polish once this happens let it sit fromanywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. This is called the base polish and will look like crap so don‘t leave it like that! Then after 30 minutes to an hour get a new section of cloth and get it wet and put a little polish on the cloth and rub it in in circles. at first it wont look that good but after you‘ve done that a couple times it will start to look fairly good. I can take an new pair of stripped boots and make them like a mirror in about an hour... but that‘s only because I learned more about unifomrs than anything else at the last summer training.

 

[boxerboy50]

Thats exactly how I would do it too!

 

[tmbluesbflat]

WO2 in PPCLI despot 1962 on inspection, to young recruit" good turn out soldier" moves to inspect the back of soldier and sees poorly shined back of boots "what do you say about this mess soldier"
soldier replies "leaving room for improvement, Sir!" The platoon got the weekend pass and the WO2 was absolutley out of it he was laughing so hard, I thought he would pass out.

 

[tmbluesbflat]

Another time the depot RSM on inspecting the troops again friday looking for weekend passes, everything looks great until he inspects the rear of one recruit and sees the top of the recruits boot protruding from his puttees, (political correctness had not yet arrived) "What the **** is this at the back of your boots soldier?" "I don‘t know Sir!" RSM "What the **** do you mean,You don‘t know?"The recruit"Well Sir, you taught us that a good soldier never looks behind him, Sir! The RSM keeping a straight face, turned over the parade and made a very smart about face and left the area. But we all could hear him laughing as he marched off, passes granted!

 

[shaunlin41]

Try your best to break them in quickly or any polish you apply will flake of in a matter of seconds.

 

[vr]

How shiny is enough?

How long is a piece of string.

Like beauty it resides in the eye of the beholder.

 

[rdschultz]

I‘m pretty sure I can tell you how long the string is, so long as you give me a ruler.

 

[Lajeunesse]

usually when the boots start to resemble mirrors,like almost everyonbe here has stated its shinny enough to pass an inspection.
The more effort you put into them the shinnier they‘ll be I guess the question would then have to be changed to how much time you can spend on your boots.

 

[chrisf]

Originally posted by Army_Chick:
[qb] The Canadian Forces has a standard. That standard is made so that no one can achieve it. They do that so that people keep striving for the best in their uniforms as to one day hope to achieve it. No matter how shiney your boots are, the CF thinks they can always be better.. but, you can always get away with a Kiwi cloth, polish and a widdle bita spit! [/qb]

There‘s no such thing as a standard that can‘t be achieved.

 

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by tmbluesbflat:
[qb] WO2 in PPCLI despot 1962 on inspection, to young recruit" good turn out soldier" moves to inspect the back of soldier and sees poorly shined back of boots "what do you say about this mess soldier"
soldier replies "leaving room for improvement, Sir!" The platoon got the weekend pass and the WO2 was absolutley out of it he was laughing so hard, I thought he would pass out. [/qb]

I got my sergeant on the first inspection of our drivers course that way. When asking me why I was wearing the Mk III combat shirt (the so-called "tuck in" style), I told him "the top candidate has to stand out, Sergeant."

I ended up finishing in the bottom third, but I at least made him laugh on the parade square.

 

[kristina_321]

Help!!!!!!! my boots need some real help they have a good shine but i need a bigger improvement !!    

 

[Superman]

combat boots or parade?

 

[kristina_321]

          my parade boots

 

[Superman]

When I was in Cadets I had parade boots and all I used was polish and a kiwi cloth... I used the technique called a spit shine... It was fast and for me really effective... All I did was spit in the polish and rub it in with a kiwi cloth into the boot... and then shined it with a clean section of the kiwi cloth.

 

[kristina_321]

I do, do that but it wont get any shinier!!! 

 

[Superman]

how many coats have you put on? and make sure ur letting the polish dry before you shine it.