The pair that we are working with today is a pair of Greve mid-top Monk Strap. This pair has the following attention points:
- Pale colour and dry leather throughout the whole of the shoe
- Damage on the heel of the shoe
The process step-by-step with the used products:
- Thorough cleaning with Saphir Renomat (about 3x)
- Fed the leather with Saphir Médaille d’Or Renovateur
- Restoring the color of the shoe with Saphir Médaille d’Or Pommadier cream (3x)
- Polished the shoe with Saphir Mirror Gloss
- After that, we gave the nose of the shoe a powerful mirror shine with Saphir Médaille d’Or Mirror Gloss (3x) en Saphir Médaille d’Or Pate de Luxe
We also used:
- Set horsehair brushes
- Cotton applicator cloth
- Cotton polishing cloth
- Water dispenser
- Leather shoe shine carpet
Cleaning, feeding, and colouring
In order to build the layers, it is important to first get rid of the old cream and wax layers. We did this with Saphir Renomat. Because of the leather being rather dry, we used Saphir Médaille d’Or Renovateur to freshen up and revive the leather. After cleaning and treating the leather we went on with the colouring and protection of the shoe, which we did with Saphir Médaille d’Or Pommadier cream.
Mirror Shine
A renovation is not complete until you give the shoes a good mirror shine.
This time we did this wilt a combination of a hard shoe wax (Saphir Médaille d’Or Mirror Gloss) and a softer shoe wax to smoothen the harder layer out (Saphir Médaille d’Or Pate de Luxe).
We will give you a short summary of the process:
- We first applied a layer of Pate de Luxe to the entire shoe. Afterward, you give them a quick shine using a brush.
- Moving on to the Mirror Gloss. The first two applications we use a fair amount of shoe wax. This is to fill out the structure of the leather. The wax hardens and creates a smooth surface which you make shiny by buffing it with a cloth. It is also perfectly fine to use a brush to quickly shine these two first layers of Mirror Gloss. Just make sure to be thorough.
- Layers 3-5 we continue to apply and shine Saphir Mirror Gloss, but now we only use cloths for the shining. Apply small amounts of wax from now on, let the wax dry for a minute and then shine the wax using your cloth. Use circular motions and make sure not to put too much pressure while shining. This can cause you to rub the wax off the leather which you just applied. The weight of your fingers is sufficient pressure most of the times.
- End your mirror shine with a layer of Pate de Luxe. Pate de Luxe contains more solvent and oil than Mirror Gloss. That is why it is categorized as a soft wax compared to Mirror Gloss. The solvents and oil will smoothen out the hard mirror gloss making it an even more glossy surface than before. Also sometimes the Mirror Gloss will “fog up”, you can use Pate de Luxe to cure this as well.
*Almost in all cases we choose to only mirror shine the nose and heel part of the shoes since those are the inflexible parts of the shoes. Wax dries up as a hard layer and will crack when flexed during walking.
