How do YOU hold your shoes while polishing?

[Badger Bill]

Hi Friends,

Seems like a silly question on the surface, but how do you hold your leather dress shoes while polishing them? Do you wear a smock and rest the shoes on your lap, gripping them with your legs? Do you wear them and prop your foot up on a stool and polish that way? Or do you use a wall mount or free standing device that the shoe slips onto and is thereby held in place for polishing?

I've lately become intrigued by the third option described above as it seems like it would give the best angle for working the shoe. Has anyone ever used a tool like this, and if so, can you recommend one? Or, do you find that entirely unnecessary? If so, what is your preferred method?

Thanks a lot!

 

[davent]

I remember just stuffing my free hand into the shoe and doing all the business with my dominant hand.
dave

 

[Champion of Capua]

I keep the shoe trees in and just bare hand them

 

[captp]

If you're going to be shining 20+ pairs of shoes a day, you probably want option 3. Otherwise, go with holding in one hand and buffing, etc. with the other.
Or, just go with option 3; overkill but they're your shoes.

 

[ajkel64]

I either leave them on my feet and bend over and place my foot on a step to polish them or I place them in my left hand and polish with my right hand.

 

[Sparki]

I would say that most of the time I polish them while I`m wearing them, just before I step out. I clean them with a dry cloth and then use some cream or some other product to polish them.

In case that I`m planning in advance, I would put one hand in a shoe and polish with another.

 

[davent]

I haven't polished a shoe in probably decades by now but i'm sure if i tried polishing with the shoe on my foot i'd be needing to clean polish off my socks, well, if i was wearing socks.

Does the tongue get polished?
dave

 

[The Knize]

<do you use a wall mount or free standing device that the shoe slips onto and is thereby held in place for polishing?>

I have one and I use it sometimes. Something like this except made of aluminum and much less expensive. Professional Shoe Shine Butler (Shoe Holder) I think I got it off Esty and it was vintage. Excellent really. Takes a little setting up to use it. But allows one to hold a long polishing cloth on either eand and really bear down on the shoe.

 

[tsellati]

I remember just stuffing my free hand into the shoe and doing all the business with my dominant hand.
dave

+1

Tim

 

[Badger Bill]

<do you use a wall mount or free standing device that the shoe slips onto and is thereby held in place for polishing?>

I have one and I use it sometimes. Something like this except made of aluminum and much less expensive. Professional Shoe Shine Butler (Shoe Holder) I think I got it off Esty and it was vintage. Excellent really. Takes a little setting up to use it. But allows one to hold a long polishing cloth on either eand and really bear down on the shoe.

Yes that's exactly the sort of thing I'm imagining, but the one you linked seems so expensive! So the vintage route that you took sounds like a great way to go. I'll have to keep an eye out for something like that.

And thanks to everyone else for your sensible replies as well... If I can't find a device like the aluminum one, I suppose I'll bare hand it or try while wearing (but yeah... the socks bit seems like an issue).

 

[johnniegold]

I recommend a shoe butler.

 

[John Rose]

I remember just stuffing my free hand into the shoe and doing all the business with my dominant hand.
dave

+1
Also for cleaning and/or applying dubbin.

 

[The Knize]

Yes. Shoe butler or shine butler in aluminum is what I have. I have not been able to find them new anywhere.

 

[blantyre]

I have a shoe butler that I use occasionally. Usually I just put my left hand inside the shoe and polish with my right hand.

 

[Rushman2112]

Give them to the valet...

 

[The Knize]

Nice set up, BTW, JohnnieGold. It takes a strong connection to something solid for the base of that shine butler. One puts the shoe on the end of a lever, so that the forces on that connection are not small. Also, I made the mistake of putting my shine butler too low on the wall, with nothing underneath, and I have dripped edge "treatment" down onto what was once an off-white carpet, which would not have remained so even without the liquid drip. Nice assortment of brushes, applicators, and polishes, etc., all in easy reach. Different ones for different colors.

By the way, one can tie shoelaces up out of the way through that eyelet" on the very end of the device.

Are those Alden shell penny loafers? They are beautiful. Better than new! Black edging I take it. I am always torn between using black or brown edging on similar shoes. I used to have oxblood Dyanshine, which I prefer for edging anyway, but Dyanshine seems hard to get these days.

[This part is being written later. I probably meant Dyanshine cordovan, not oxblood, and Dyanshine appears to be available at retail from the manufacturer, Zoes on-line. I just bought a bottle in each color of black, brown, oxblood, and cordovan. I use this stuff strictly for edges and to cover scuffs. Seems potentially drying for overall shoe polishing. I find regular edging too thick, too shiny, too drippy, and too long drying. ]

 

[ctr]

I was taught to spit shine boots at 18 by my father who was a cadet at one time. Used the same method for dress shoes later in life.

Place a towel over the left thigh while sitting in a chair. Place the left hand (non-dominant) inside the boot or shoe palm up or down depending on side being worked on. Place a small amount of polish on the shoe. Rub it in good with a cloth. Spit on shoe and use a brush back and forth motion hard to build up heat. Work a small area at a time. No more than 1 - 2 inches. Spit as needed.

Use a permanent marker of appropriate color to touch up sides of sole and heal as needed.

 

[johnniegold]

Nice set up, BTW, JohnnieGold. It takes a strong connection to something solid for the base of that shine butler.

Are those Alden shell penny loafers? They are beautiful. Better than new!

No doubt. And yes, you have a good eye. They are the Alden loafers.

 

[TheGrimWeeper]

All steps must be followed for best results:
1) Sit on couch or floor
2) Crack beer(s)
3) Turn on TV to something historical, violent, or preferably both
4) Put one hand inside shoe or hold by the heel/sole sides
5) Apply cream polish, flaming Kiwi, edge dressing, buff brush, or whatever you've got with other hand

 

[cleanshaved]

I use to be a hand in shoe polisher but now leave my shoe trees in them for polishing. Rest the shoes on my lap and get to work on them.