I needed this video at least 47 years ago when I joined the army cadets and definitely needed it a few years later when I joined the regular army.

My shine was always decent but after years in the department of corrections your tips gave my boots a whole new level of pride and dedication to the career. I will be teaching my staff this method. Thank you sir for your time and great presentation!!

I'm glad to finally see the King's guard beeswax method being professionally demonstrated. I entirely agree that it should not be used for convensional dress shoes and only treat my parade shoes this manner.

As a warning to anyone who does this in a particularly cold country like the United Kingdom, sometimes the beeswax can get very stiff and even snap off if you leave it without maintenance for a while.

This is absolutely amazing. I was in the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and we had to do this. I wish we knew the techniques you are teaching back then because we were doing it all wrong making for a lot of extra work. Thanks.

The Magical words! ‘If You feel friction Your pulling Wax off’
Thank You, Sir 🙏🏼
It almost looks like patented leather and this I say as a compliment 👌

I try to follow the same process on a budget, and it's pretty close on my work boots; also I get compliments on them. Excellent day everyone.

I was an MP in the late 70's through the mid 80's and then other MOS's, I always had a minimum of 7 pairs each of dress shoes and Corcoran jump boots.  I would wear which ever was called for in rotation, so that no pair was worn consecutively.  I would spit-shine each pair everyday, that way whichever ones I wore would have to a minimum of 7 layers by the time I wore them again.  I also broke starch at least twice a day.

When I graduated from basic training I immediately purchased a pair of black patent leather shoes for my dress uniform

THANK YOU FOR THE BEESWAX, its impossible to find videos that show how to apply the beeswax cause i just got my new boots and have been a bit scared to apply beesawx to them THKANKKK YOUUU

This is close to what we used to do at Air Cadets (Royal Canadian Airforce equivalent of JROTC). Instead of using a heat gun, we "burned" the boots (originally started with cap toe shoes, but moved to flight style boots (ankle boots, essentially) after a year. Instead of a heat gun, we melted the first, rather heavy application of shoe wax (usually Kiwi, we were told to not use Tana/Tanya), and melted the wax all the way down. The preferred heat source was either a light or wood matches (we were taught to not use paper matches). Then, we just let the shoes cool off. After that, we just essentially did the same as you did, but instead of the water/water-alcohol mix, we just spit on the shoe. The parade shine/mirror shine was only required for the toe/lower part of the uppers, nothing further than the seam that separated the front part of the boot from the rest of it. The rest of the boot was to be maintained to be just black, without parade/mirror shine. Shoe/boot shining was given as a short instructional course within the first month of entering the Air Cadet program.

I had a guy in the army that I worked with in my company, this guy would purchase black spray paint with a high gloss and tape his boot off (airborne unit) and he was a master at making them look like they were made of glass!!

Another great video, Preston. If I’d had this tutorial (or ANY of your tutorials) just over 20 years ago, my life would’ve been infinitely easier. LOL!!!

It’s so satisfying watching the transformation. From beginning to end! Truly amazing finish!! So shiny and smooth!! 🤩🎉

Watching you work is an absolute delight, Preston...   Hello from Across The Pond.

I’m currently watching while shining my shoes for my first inspection day in NJROTC, wish me luck!

Thank you for showing love to our service members/first responders!

This is a very good Demonstration. I’d say having served for 21 years that typically the method we used back then, was to saddle soap the new boot or shoe, hit it with black leather dye and remove any excess, use a heat gun to melt a few layers of Lincoln wax or kiwi to the leather and then start shining. We’d typically use some socks for maintenance shines instead of a shoe tree because it wouldn’t make the vamp so stretched during shining meaning less “glitter” from wax flaking out of the flex points. Monday mornings, parades, etc would get the full monty

Wow! I’ve really been slacking on my military leather dress shoes! I had no idea I could get a shine this good!

This modified fire method is good to see! I am glad that someone who cares about top quality shoes also suggests it.

Appreciate the disclaimer and link at the beginning! Almost blindly followed this on a pair for a wedding.