Two-tone your own shoes. Tutorial

[Marc Chevalier]

hah...thats when you whip out your fine grade sandpaper and sand the waxy too smooth area.....so that the paint stays...

Denise MacGyver! lol


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[Miss Neecerie]

Denise MacGyver! lol


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sorry....any lady that does crafts knows this......

 

[dhermann1]

I would think there would be a less damaging chemical that could do the job. I know ammonia strips wax, both from floors and shoes. Would some sort of ammonia do the trick?

 

[MrBern]

adhesive remover

Before desktop publishing, we used Bestine to dissolve rubber cement & wax on our paste-ups.
http://papercement.com/bestine.html

So Ive used it to strip black shoepolish from old brown army boots.

Rubbing alcohol , and lighter fluid should also do the trick...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Rubbing alcohol , and lighter fluid should also do the trick...

Mixed together or either or?

 

[MrBern]

Mixed together or either or?

Either or.

But Im just talking about removing dark shoe polish. Getting thru the dye on a leather shoe could be done with some nasty chemicals, but unless the finish is very superficial, you'll jsut end up witha dark nasty leather. Some reenactors have tried stripping old black boots to rework into WWII era brown boots. Not so great.
I had a pair of `50s brown boots that had been shined up with black polish. They were never russet again, but in using some bestine, I got the polish off so it became more of a walnut brown.

BTW, moisturize the leather after its been stripped. You dont want it to start cracking. I had a bartender friend who said her old cowboyboots & engineerboots would crack from spilt alcohol working in the bar.

there should be a tutorial somewhere online

 

[MrBern]

here are some links for cleaning shoes

http://www.ehow.com/how_4923550_strip-shoe-polish.html

http://forums.officer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=78952

 

[drummer4hire]

will this work on smoother leathers, i.e. calfskin? or is light sanding needed?

 

[flyfishark]

Mr. Mueller...Thanks so much. I LOVE gunboat specs, and have more than I care to think about. Even with all those, I'm still going to try your technique on some gunboats that I have sitting around. Really appreciate the tutorial.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

This is a great deal of information and a good "how to" as well... Thanks!

A few years ago, I purchased a spray can of leather color finish. The product came with some prep cleaner and instructions on what to do before you would spray the color on the leather. It really was just a form of paint, but there was something in it to help it flex and all, to give it a longer life on the leather.

I may be able to find the same product here in the town where I live now, the shoe repairman here has a variety of products.

It may be however, a harder project to spray some shoes, over using a brush to color the leather.