I have a tin of Kiwi shoe polish where the polish has broken into chunks making it difficult to wipe onto a cloth or brush. Can I put the tin on the cooker and melt the polish so it sticks back together again, like candle wax, or is there anything in the polish that's likely to go on fire?
In fact, does anyone have any good tips on the best way to use this polish (brush or cloth, cold or hot, etc.)
Put it in the oven at 100C or so. On the cooker is a bad idea, as it may burn.
But it will still be too hard to use and will break up when you try to. Some of the solvent has evaporated. You could try mixing a small amount of oil of turpentine into it while it's molten - but shoe polish is pretty cheap still (you seem not to have used it for some time!)
Mary
>I have a tin of Kiwi shoe polish where the polish has broken into chunks making it difficult to wipe onto a cloth or brush. Can I put the tin on the cooker and melt the polish so it sticks back together again, like candle wax, or is there anything in the polish that's likely to go on fire?
I just add some white spirit - mind you that stinks the place out if you do it indoors or, worse, in the oven !
In message , Kooky45 wrote
Set fire to the polish it will burn and melt into one.
I forgot to say that it's not a good idea to melt any wax on a direct source of heat.
Mary
Don't melt over a gas flame etc. Been there done that, got the singed eyebrows and the large burn mark on the kitchen carpet !!!!
Dave
Put the tin in a basin of hot water for 15 minutes.
Then let the whole thing cool - don't try and lift it out until the polish has solidified again.
I didn't - it went all over the place, and it's taken 9 months to get the polish out of the vinyl flooring.
In my case I sat it in a saucepan with half a centimetre of simmering water. Melted in less than a minute and cooled back to solid in about
HTH OG
Yes you can; I have done this many many times over the years, (but not with the same tin of polish, obviously). However, it is all too easy to overdo it on the cooker, and the fumes can then catch fire with unpleasant results. It would be better to heat it gently over a little spirit burner or one of those squat little candles which used to be used as nightlights in the old days, but which seem to be used for 'mood' lighting these days. However, do be very careful as liquid shoe polish on the skin is extremely painful and seriously unfunny.
Each time you do this some solvent is lost, so it may only be effective once or twice. Unless the tin has a lot left in it, I'd bin it and buy a new one. I suppose if I'm objective about it, from a health and safety point of view, I should advise you not to do it - period! You could cause an expensive fire, or burn yourself quite nastily, which is hardly worth it for a few tens of pence worth of polish. However, I must admit to deriving a certain miserly pleasure from it. ;-)
Rick
Power and fuel costs money.
Mary
Either buy some more, or melt it over your double-boiler and add a little real turpentine and a few drops of ammonia (you might just need the ammonia). If you don't have all of these already, just buy some more shoe polish.
It's a foul task for a cheap product. Really not worth doing. OTOH, I'm a bloody fool and can happily spend all day brewing wax polishes - there's crateloads of the stuff in the workshop.
Quite.
I make lots too, but only to sell. I never use it ...
Mary
On 29 Nov 2004, Kooky45 wrote
Got me thinking, that. Starting point:
I have no idea.
Wondering:
One of the simplest ways to make "black polish" -- black-coloured shellac which one uses for ebonising furniture -- is to "melt" a broken pre-vinyl record (scratched 78rpm) by soaking it in meths. Questions for the expurts:
Does shoe polish have shellac in it? (Hell -- does *anything* have shellac in it any more?) Would a minimal amount of meths revitalise shoe polish in the same way that it melts 78rpm records?
Ah..........the days of 'national service'.........the words "spooning" & elbow grease spring to mind! ;-)
Don.
Yes
Yes
My grandad had a piece of bone for that - in the First World War though ....
I still have it. Means more than his medals.
Mary
No.
(Hell -- does
French polish.
Would a minimal
No. And it doesn't melt the records, it can dissolve them but it takes some time.
Do you remember making plant pots from them by making them soft in hot water and moulding them round a shape of your choice? They had a wavy edge ...
Never liked them!
However, I have a collection of 78s if anyone wants to try ... some from the
1930s. I keep forgetting how heavy they are.Mary
Mary
LOL!
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