Bulling Leather Army Boots

[hivemind]

My experiences from seven years as a USMC musician largely jive with the above. One thing that wasn't mentioned was that the most recent version of the US GI black combat boot (the one with the padded collar and the speed lace eyelets) is made from leather impregnated with some kinda softening agent. We always said is was silicone, but I don't really know. These boots never polished worth a shit, and we all bought Georgia brand boots for drill and ceremonies. We saved the speed laces for PT and field exercises.

We would also occasionally, when we were doing 4-6 ceremonies a day and crazy busy, resort to a good buff shine with a boot brush and then wipe on a thin coat of Mop & Glo. It'd carry you through a few days, but you had to remove it afterward, which sometimes could suck.

Most of us had two sets of Georgia boots, so that we could always be polishing one while wearing the other. As a musician, we were expected to look better than anyone else in the Corps, so we had all kinds of tricks we'd use. Our utilities had so much starch in them they could literally stand on their own. We even went to lengths like snipping the prongs off our ribbon stars, filing the backs smooth, and super gluing them onto the ribbons so that they never moved.

[RandyScott]

Talk about a trip down memory lane! Hour after hour of spit polishing boots. I used the basic technique as outlined by barra, 100% cotton diaper was, and remains to this day (and I polish my dress shoes weekly to this day and it has been many, many years!). My shoe shine kit is a 7.62 ammo box that is older than my children and I am a granddad. I remember using cotton balls, spit, water, breathing on the shoe. One pair of boots for junk on the bunk inspections, parades, formal inspections, etc., two pair of 'users' in rotation. I still do a basic polish, buff with horsehair shoe brush, use a piece of flannel to buff to a semi-gloss, then lick the cloth covered finger and just barely touch the Kiwi Parade Gloss and rub it gently on the leather till it takes on the shine I want. If traveling a bit and my shoes get a little beat up, I will use lighter fluid or alcohol to remove a layer and blend in the skuffs and start the whole process over. Oh.. and of course, the killer was all the effort to get the 10 yard shine and then stand in the summer sun while the sun turns your spit shine into crap or the wind picks up and the dust very nicely coats your loving efforts. Oh well, it was to build esprit de corps, discipline, activity traps to keep you busy. Oh, to the poster who was in the USMC Band.. did you ever do the Evening Parade at Eighth and I?

[hivemind]

Oh, to the poster who was in the USMC Band.. did you ever do the Evening Parade at Eighth and I?

Negative. Gonna digress a little here to explain how Marine bands work.

There's two bands in Washington DC at 8th and I: The President's Own Marine Band and The Commandant's Own Drum and Bugle Corps. Those guys are special, in different ways.

The President's Own aren't really Marines, for the most part. With a few exceptions of guys who auditioned from the fleet bands, those guys are people with advanced music performance degrees who would otherwise be playing in symphony orchestras, studio bands, and the like. If they pass the audition, they come in as Staff Sergeants (E6) and enlist "for duty with The President's Own Marine Band only". They don't go to boot camp, they don't deploy, hell they even have different rank insignia. Real Marines have crossed rifles in their chevrons, those guys have a music lyre.

The Commandant's Own are Marines, they do go to boot camp, and start off as privates, but that's the only duty station they serve at. The Commandant's Own is a drum and bugle corps, which means that their instruments (other than drums) are different from a normal band, so they're of no use to the fleet bands.

The rest of the bands are called "fleet bands", meaning they serve in the Fleet Marine Force like any other regular duty Marines. There are twelve of these bands:

Marine Corps Base Band, MCB Quantico, Virginia

2d Marine Air Wing Band, MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina

2d Marine Division Band, MCB Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Band, MCRD Parris Island, South Carolina

Marine Corps Logistics Base Band, MCLB Albany, Georgia

USMC Forces Reserve Band (4th Marine Division), New Orleans, Louisiana

Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Band, MCAGCC Twentynine Palms, California

Marine Corps Recruit Depot Band, MCRD San Diego, California

3rd Marine Air Wing Band, MCAS Miramar, California

1st Marine Division Band, MCB Camp Pendleton, California

Marine Forces Pacific Band, MCB Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii

III Marine Expeditionary Force Band, MCB Camp Foster, Okinawa, Japan

Each one has an official strength of 50 enlisted and one officer, but in reality generally hover between 40 and 45 Marines. Some of these duty stations are pretty cushy (Hawaii, New Orleans and 29 Palms come to mind) and some are definitely not (the two division bands and the two MCRD bands, for example). I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, where we not only played 600+ gigs a year, but also were in the field about a month a year, and deployed to Desert Storm and Haiti while I was there (1991-1995). We had a secondary job as a security platoon for the commanding general, so when the division deployed, so did we. While I was there, I went on helocasts in the Atlantic, fired about fifteen different weapons, from pistols to MK19 automatic grenade launchers (spent a lot of time on one of those), and did riot control training for our deployment to Haiti. Lots of different stuff, and at times it got pretty high-speed. The band is an oversize platoon, so it's used for a lot of "weird" jobs, where a standard platoon of 30 guys is too small, but a company of 120 Marines is massive overkill. Sometimes we were "just right" for the mission, and we got sent.

29 Palms, on the other hand, is a training base, and when I was there the band there has life pretty easy. You don't go to the field, or really do much in the way of "Marine type stuff". Your job was to look good and play music. We'd go down to Palm Springs to party every weekend, go snowboarding at Big Bear all the time in the winter (I could see the mountain from the barracks), and roll out to Lake Havasu, Arizona or Laughlin, Nevada when we really wanted to cut loose. Hell of a good time being stationed there, once you got past the desert heat and environment.

Anyways, I was in from 1991 to 1998, and had a hell of a good time, and wouldn't trade it for anything.I played for Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton, the Queen of England, and visited every state in America except North Dakota. We went to England, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico, Russia, Finland, Canada, Bermuda... hell, I can't even remember all of it. When we were traveling, you're in a different city every weekend, staying in hotels and doing concerts and parades, and hitting the bars and clubs every night. Hell of a life for a kid right out of high school - lemme tell you, the women sure do like the dress blues.

Edited July 15, 2010 by hivemind

[Echo4V]

I knew I should have been in the band.

[MBOGO]

My two cent's. I was an MP, and we were supposed to set the standard, and when we were up to full staff (almost never) the best uniform and boots would get the shift off. I like free days off.

For the GI silicone treated speedlace jeep soled boots, to get a good shine on them, the complete exterior grain had to be sanded off. Then a base of Kiwi black, and keep going until it was filled in. Usually about three or four nights process, as the Kiwi had to harden, and you had to use a lot.

For the jungle boots and Corcoran jump boots, I liked to start with a 400 or 600 wet sand to give the surface some tooth, to hold the polish (I had some auto body experience) otherwise it would flake off. They seemed to have a lacquer finish, or something like that.

Once you had a good base, of Kiwi black, using the lightly applied techniques described above (I used an old 100% cotton tee shirt, four layers thick), and a mister spray bottle (hair spray pump bottle works best). After I got the black good and shiny, I would do around two cotes of Kiwi clear. It would give it depth, and it seemed to be much shinier than the black, and it wouldn't "swirl" up as much. It probably had something to do with not having any pigment in it. I did experiment with Kiwi blue, and cordovan as a top cote, they worked good, but the clear is always easy to find. I tried the Kiwi parade gloss, didn't get any real "WOW" results. Lincolns seemed grittier, and was more expensive.

As for the cheats I liked the Chattanooga Fats' "Seal-A-Shine". The shoe shine shop in the PX sold it. It took out all the swirls, didn't turn milky if it got wet, held scuffs down, I never could find any negatives about it.

Before I used the Seal-A-Shine, as a rule my boots looked like mirrors, and I would spend 10-15 minutes to re-shine them when they got scuffed.

[JerryLevine]

Fascinating!

Thanks guys. There is a whole 'culture' here that people outside the military know little about. Can anyone else add anything? Stories? History? Where did the idea come from? Does anyone still do it?

Ray

Hi Ray,

I found this rather belatedly while I was searching for how best to create a stirrup slot on a saddle tree with Arizona bars, so not sure quite how I managed to end up on this page.....

Anyway, I've been a Grenadier Guardsman (red coat, fluffy hat, big houses in London, etc, etc) since 1980 and if you're still interested in this subject I can add to what our American colleagues have already posted 2 yeras ago. It still very definitely goes on (I was Chief Usher on the Queen's Brithday Parade this year and I'm just about to bull my civvie shoes to go to MoD, so I've had recent expereince).There are some significant differences, but the common factor is Kiwi polish!

All the best,

Jerry

PS If you know anything about sorting out Arizona bars.........!

[EricDobson]

I'm always interested in this topic! Anything you can add will be greatly appreciated!

[cuzi]

Hi All

It is done pretty much the same all around the world. Here in South Africa the procedure is/was called 'Boning' the boots. Also at inspection before guard duty the neatest soldier on parade was given the duty off . He was called 'Stockman' in Afrikaans which is 'Stickman' in english but don't ask me why. These were the good old days in South Africa.

[rickybobby]

In our boot repair shop (cowboy boots!) we polish every pair after doing heels and soles. Customers really like to see the boots looking like they did when they bought them! Any way we also sell polish on line and I sell a bunch of Lincoln wax polish to cadets. They seem to like it for a super gloss. I have never used the Kiwi Parade polish but it sounds like it does a great job too. We also sell boxes and boxes of metal heel plates and full Army Rims. We have every size of each that is available (they seem to be hard to find,everyone who orders them are thrilled to find out about our selection of all sizes). I don't know if there are groups in the military that require Metal Heel Plates but there are a bunch of people using them (in the military) and in civilian life.

Most of the boots we polish is done with Meltonian Polish, it works well and we have all colors.

Our shine method is pretty simple for cowboy boots, Clean & Condition, Apply polish, Buff with horsehair brush, Finish with soft towel. There is no mirror finish like the military but with the mud, dust and cow poop cleaned off the customers are happy!

[8thsinner]

I have never been in the military but did like using military boots, cheap, strong and lasting.

So I did take to polishing my boots to mirrors.

I found a good process for myself which went something like this.

Kiwi (regular) would be brushed on as quickly as possible to provide heat with a heavy brush and left for an hour.

I would buff this off as quick as possible to get my base coat.

Then with a finger and a regular polishing cloth I would take to the polish with a wrapped finger, starting by using small circles in the polish until you can see it melting then scoop of the shiny polish and start to rub this in. When it got kinda sticky you went to a different spot.

After it was all at that sticky point I would go at it again with the up turned tin of polish holding ice cold water to harden the polish at that level. It got pretty good results.

I tried spitting, I tried breathing on em, but nothing got as good a finish as using cold water.

I probably put 3-4 coats on like this over a few hours.

After this I would finish with two layers of parade gloss maybe even three. I used the same process but buffed the last layer with speed and stocking or just a T shirt.

I used to do this every saturday without fail before I even had breakfast and get into town about 3...

After a while I stopped doing it, probably because the scuffing just got too annoying.

But I still use the same process every couple of years especially when new boots are being used.