Things you will need:

1 x tin of Kiwi Black Parade Gloss. (or normal Kiwi Black if you don't have the patience for parade gloss)

2 x shoe brushes

A good quality (lint free) cloth

A small amount of water (not spit, i have been informed that it eats away at the leather)

Preparation:
(not to be used on a daily basis - just for a complete make over)

• Remove any previous attempts to polish your shoes by using a shoe brush or scraping the polish off with the edge of an old cassette case, but be carefull not to damage the leather.
• Dip your brush in Kiwi Black and polish the whole of the shoe. Brush off the polish with a soft brush or cloth. Repeat for the toecap only

Shining: (daily use)

• Fold your cloth and wrap it around your index-finger so that the cloth under it is smooth - this will avoid smears and scratches later
• Dab the cloth in some clean water, ensuring that not too much water soaks into the cloth
• Place a small amount of polish onto the wet part of the cloth and work the polish into the leather in a circular motion working in a regular pattern around the toecap
• You may need to put just a touch more water on the cloth if it feels like it is starting to grate.
• Once all the polish has been rubbed in, repeat the process until required level of shine is acheived.
• A good shine on a new pair of shoes should take anywhere from 30 minutes up.

Caring for your shine

• All you need to do now is to make sure nobody scuffs them, stands on them or spills anything on them - and that can be harder that it sounds!
• Keep out of reach of little peoples sticky hands
• Keep a cloth over them to keep off dust. Some people pull socks over but you risk scratching your toecaps that way.
• If you manage to keep them scuff free and shiny, all you will need to do before you go to cadets is just give them a quick polish using the technique above.

Useful tips & ideas

Once you start getting a good shine on your shoe, breathe over the entire toecap so that your breath condenses on the toecap. Continue rubbing the shoe with your cloth until there is no sign of smearing polish.

If your polish is old or has white specks on it then it is time to replace it as it will not be very efective.

Instead of using a good quality cloth, you could use small swabs of pure cotton wool. Make sure it says "pure" on the packet as cheaper cotton wool is mixed with other coarser materials which produce scratches on highly polished toecaps. (i'm not a fan of this method, but i know people who are)

To get rid of any swirls of polish on your toecaps, run them under the cold tap while rubbing the toecap with pure cotton wool. (I've never used this but two of my NCO's swear by it!)

DO NOT use naked flames from any source to melt or light polish! If any one ever suggests it then ignore them.
It is highly dangerous and apart from removing the nutrients from the polish that protect the leather, it can also cause burns and scalds and liquid polish can permantly ruin anything it comes into contact with.
Trust me on this, from personal experience. You will not be popular if your 'special method' goes badly wrong, and destroys your clothes, your bedroom, or you!