How to Get a Mirror Shine on Your Boots

All you need is a blowtorch and a lot of free time.

Ever wanted to know how to get your boots REALLY shiny for a show? Well…you may just have to break out the heavy artillery. British cavalry troopers do not kid around when it comes to getting their boots ready for the Queen’s Life Guard and state occasions. It takes them five to 12 hours to polish just one pair of boots, starting with step 1: FIRE.

How to Get a Mirror Finish on Leather Boots:

1. Use a blowtorch to melt a block of wax, and buff into the boots so they become rigid. Take a blow torch to the waxed boots to melt the wax all over.
2. Apply about four hours worth of boot polish and water until the boot is smooth.
3. Finish off the boots with gentle, circular buffing.

“You keep them at such a high level all the time that when you come off of an escort, they’re wrecked…and then the process starts again,” says David O’Mahoney, a trooper in the Blues and Royals. And they repeat the whole process twice a week. Check it out: