To suspect that DH has some unknown shoe care stuff.

[KoPo]

DD1 has something important to go to so has asked DH to polish her shoes. Well he has polished them and it is quite unlike anything I can bloody do. They are truly gleaming, so gleaming in fact that I know (although he denies) he has used more than the normal polish we have. I just want to know what the hell he has used to get that finish.

He claims to have used just kiwi polish and water. Water???

Yes I know this is slightly silly but it is actually bugging me that he wont tell me.

sniggers Kiwi and water, brushed in. left for 10 mins. Clean brush to brush off. Duster to buff.

totes amazeballs

So he is actually just using the kiwi and water? .... Damn I feel stupid now

Was he in the army? Boarding school? Dh is great at shoe polishing

Elbow grease! My grandad used to polish my shoes when I was a little 'in and could buff them to a shine no one else could. It was particularly annoying when I was a teenager and would spend ages scuffing up my Doc Martens to make them look suitably lived-in, only for him to take them and polish them till they gleamed.

It's spit, I betcha! My dad was in the army and he spit-shined his shoes. Kiwi and spit and a brush to buff. It was truly foul watching him do it...

My DH always does a much better job too. He says it's all in the wrist

Yes, it's amazing. My dad still has his Army shoe brushes from National service in the 50s (complete with his army number painted on in white ) and convinced me for years it was the brushes not the polish.

Did he used to be in the armed forces cadets? My house mate at uni would buff his shoes until they shone like mirrors. Know it involved spitting water but can't remember the specifics.

Nope .. not in the forces. But his father was

He is now laughing at me for showing myself up.

Bastard!

it is a special forces thing called bulling, they do it with water. I like the very seriousness of the title of your thread KoPo.. am thinking of a few more, relevent to my own DH, for e.g. 'I suspect DH has hidden stash of Mr Muscle' (he does such a good job on the shower screen when he cleans it, once every year) 'I suspect DH eats biro's' (we get through packets of them) '... there are lots of suspect goings on really!

I've had a few wines tonight, sorry

There was a bloke at university showed us how to do this. He had been in the army and we were happy to watch him polish shoes for hours as were feeling very relaxed that evening for some reason

It involved heating a teaspoon and rubbing it over at times. And an awful lot of elbow grease. They really were terribly shiny.

And no his shoe-polishing antics weren't enough to win any of us over

Spit and polish, nothing quite like it!

Yes, spit, polish and the back of a hot spoon. Your shoes will come up like mirrors :)

@ very relaxed for some reason

I used to be an adult instructor with the army cadets many moons ago and can get a patent like shine on a pair of shoes with boot polish and water I'm very proud of my polishing skills.

Patent like sounds about the level. I just never knew it could be done like that

It's called bulling and yes, a tiny bit of water + polish will make leather shoes shine like glass.
The secret is tiny, tiny circles - I sit mesmerized watching DH do it ( ex forces) .

It's very therapeutic and the thought of it brings back happy memories of us all sitting in the corridor together at 11pm in basic training when we had scrubbed out our rooms and got kit ready for an inspection and the last thing to do was shoes! Good chance just to sit and chat
I still have my original shoe brushes from 20 yrs ago when I joined up

it should be the law that every partner who is/was in the forces has complete responsibility for shoecare, as they always do such a good job. The spoon bit has suprised me, i didn't know it could be done that way.

The finger action for bulling is quite useful in other areas too.