Caring for Your Shell Cordovan

My shoe care regimen is heavily based upon the well practiced “Mac Method“, however, it has some minor twists and additional specificity. I will sometimes refer to it as the “Mike Method”.

Before I go over the steps, there are some basic principles to cover. Remember that the point of brushing really is to get the oils out and on the surface. When I care for my shoes, I lightly brush the whole shoe, not putting much weight into it. I go around the entire shoe and then focus on the creases. I put my weight into it when buffing with my cotton cloths or when using the deer bone. With the deer bone, I try and do circular pattens over the creases, but frequently, it just ends up being a back and forth motion due to the shoe’s pattern interfering with my progress…

I use pretty basic supplies for my shoe care.

• I use a horsehair brush (I am cheap and buy the Allen Edmonds brushes). I use a separate brush for each color in order to avoid dye spill over. I do use the same brush for very similar colors (i.e. Alden Ravello vs. Carmina Cognac vs. Allen Edmonds Walnut Shell).
• I use cotton cloths (again, I just use the Allen Edmonds cloths, cheap and work fine). I do maintain at least 2 cloths per each color, one for basic care and one for paste waxing.
• Alden Paste Wax
  • Black for Black Shell
  • Color 8 for Color 8 Shell
  • Brown for Cigar Shell and Ravello Shell
  • Tan for Whiskey Shell
• Abbeyhorn Deer Bone (mine is from Leffot)
• Alden Leather Defender
• Allen Edmonds Heel & Sole Edge Dressing
  • Black for Black Shell and Color 8 (standard edges)
  • Natural for the Dark Antique (more properly referred to as Mahogany).

My basic shoe care regimen is as follows:

1. Tie laces and insert shoe trees.
2. Buff the dust off (if necessary) – 30 seconds
3. Lightly brush the entire shoe and then brush creased areas – 3 minutesI do steps 3 to 5 in three parts, front (vamp), inside of shoe to the back seam, and outside of the shoe to the back seam.
   
4. Hydrate the shoe (with water, saliva, or even Alden Fine Boot Cream (Neutral only)) and rub it around onto the surface of the cordovan, rubbing it into the creases – 30 seconds
5. Immediately (before liquid can dry) lightly brush wet part of shoe to remove the surface moisture – 2 minutes from front, 1 minute for sides
6. Buff to a shine with a cotton cloth putting heavy pressure on shoe – 2 minutes from front, 1 minute for sides
7. Quick buff of entire shoe – 30 seconds

If necessary (still quite a bit of creasing is present), after completing the above basic regimen I use a deer bone following steps.

1. Tie laces and insert shoe trees (if not already in).
2. After quick buff – rub the deer bone on the persistent creases or scuffs with force in a circular manner – 1-2 minutes per major crease or scuff
3. Lightly brush the area with the deer bone oils – 1 minute
4. Buff to a shine with a cotton cloth putting heavy pressure on shoe – 2 minutes from front, 1 minute for sides
5. Quick buff of entire shoe – 30 seconds

Very rarely, I apply paste wax to my shoes. I had to for these Color 8 Dr. Jones Boots today, but this is probably less than the 10th time that I have used paste wax in total.

1. After Quick buff – using a cotton cloth, extract paste wax onto cloth, by running in circles inside the container to build up a small amount of wax – 15 seconds
2. Lightly spread the paste wax around the shoe by rubbing wax from cotton cloth onto shoe – again, I break the shoe into the same 3 parts – front, left and right. – 1 minute
3. Repeat Step 2 Until entire shoe is covered in a light coat of paste wax – 1 minute
4. Allow wax to dry on shoes – 15 minutes
5. Lightly brush the entire shoe to remove excess paste wax – 1 minute
6. Lightly buff the entire shoe to remove excess paste wax and get nice shine – 1 minute

That is my entire regimen. I am now going to walk through it again with pictures to help explain the process.

Here are my boots before I started. Throughout these pictures, the boot on the right (left foot) is the one that I will be caring for.

First and foremost, I get the supplies out, insert trees into the boots and tie (or remove) the laces.

Going to start off brushing.

After simply doing a light brushing.

Now adding in the hydration.

After another quick brushing.

And after a deep buffing. I will add moisture as necessary to any dry spots while I brush and buff.

Now to Deer Bone, as I want to reduce the creases further.

As shown, I try and use the flat part of the bone on the flat surfaces, and I use the rounded part of the bone for the curved sides.

After using the deer bone, you should see a light oil  or “haze” on the surface of the shoes. You can sort of see it in the picture below.

Finally, after another quick brush and buff.

As you can tell from the hand stitching around the apron of the shoe, these have not been paste waxed in a long time, so I am going to add paste wax on to protect and to rise a higher shine. As per the picture below, I have a towel for applying the paste wax (right), a dirty towel (center) for applying Saphir Cream (which I do not do very often either and did not do today) and applying Alden’s Leather Defender, and a clean towel (left) for my normal high shine buffing.

Note that the process for Saphir Reno and Cordovan Cream is identical to Paste Wax, except I use my finger to apply instead of a towel.

After wax has been applied. They now smell great.

Finally, after a brush and buff (with the dirty paste wax cloth), followed by another buff with the clean cloth.

Finally, the edges were getting messy, so I cleaned them up with the Allen Edmonds Black Heel & Sole Edge Dressing.

The finished product as compared against the original boot.

Hope that helps and happy shoe buffing!

-Mike