1. The document provides step-by-step instructions for fire shining shoes or boots to achieve a high shine. It details the materials needed like shoe polish, cotton balls, lighter, and brush. 2. The key steps are to apply shoe polish in thin layers and use a lighter to heat the polish and open pores in the leather for better absorption. 3. Wet cotton balls are then used to buff the polish into a mirror shine while gently drying completes the process. Practice is required to master fire shining different types of shoes.

1. How to Fire Shine Shoes
Introduction: Those dress shoes sitting in your the back of your closet might benefit from a
good shine before the party or interview you plan on going to. Or maybe you’re getting ready to
head to boot camp and want to learn how to properly shine your shoes before you go. Whatever
your reason is for wanting to learn to shine your shoes this tutorial is here to help. In this step by
step tutorial we will go through the process of “fire shining” those boots or shoes, that way you
can impress a couple ladies at the party, gain a bit of a confidence to help nail that interview, or
just make everyone in your platoon jealous. Feel free to read this tutorial completely before you
start or shine as you read.
Stuff You’ll Need (Figure 1):
1. Shoe shine (black,brown, or white)
2. Cotton balls
3. Lighter
4. Cup with water
5. Shoe shining brush or a cloth/rag
Stuff You May Also Want To Have:
(Figure 1):
1. Some kind of cloth,old rag, or towel to
cover the surface you will work on (avoid
stains on the carpets or table).
2. Gloves to keep your hands and nails
from getting dirty.
Lets Begin!
1. Open your shoe polish, take your polish brush/cloth and rub some polish onto it. Be
careful not to over do it. (Figure 2-5).
Figure 1
TIPS:If you’re polish is drying, cracking, or
you have a big gap in the middle from
where polish was used most,you can light
the polish on fire in order for it to melt. The
melting will bring it back to the middle or
fill in the cracks (Figures 6&7).
Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5
Figure 6 Figure 7

2. 2. Now, rub the brush/rag onto your shoes in small circles. Make sure you take your
time and completely
cover the area you
would like to polish.
The area should be
smooth and matte
black color with a very
slight shine to it by
the time you’re done
(Figure 8&9).
3. Once you have a finished rubbing the polish onto the shoe you can go ahead and
grab your lighter. Use the lighter to slowly go over all the places that have shoe polish.
Make sure you are not burning your shoes, keep the flames moving from place to place
on the shoes surface. Give the shoes a few good passes with lighter before moving to
the next step (Figure 10 & 11). The purpose of the lighter is to really open up the pores
in the leather so that the polish can sink into them, thus giving you the best shine
possible.
4. Next, grab a your cotton balls and a cup of water. Wet the cotton ball and begin to
rub the polished area in small circles. As you do this the shoes should appear to clear
up into a mirror shine (Figure 12-14).
Figure 8 Figure 9
Figure 10 Figure 11
TIPS:Any lighter will work fine for this step.
In this tutorial I decided to use the long
lighters,used to light a grill, in order to avoid
burning my fingers with the more common
and small cigarette lighters.
Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14

3. 5. Finally, you can go ahead and gently dry them off with a cloth. Rub some more shoe
polish on your brush or rag and brush the sides of the soles on the shoes to give them a
nice dark finish to go with the shine (Optional)(Figure 15).
Good Work!
Check out that before and after!
Keep In Mind: Different kinds of shoes are made with different kinds of leathers. Some
shoes, like the ones on the left, will shine almost to a mirror shine. While others, like the
boots on the right, will have a bit more of a matted shine. Shoes shining also takes
practice before you fully get the hang of things. Some shoes will also not shine to their
full potential right away, sometimes you have to break them in for a bit and give them a
few shines before they shine to their full potential.
Figure 15
Before
Before
After After