Shining Museum Calf – With Saphir
Over the years, I have seen a lot of questions about museum calf and how to shine it. Allow me to share a couple of pointers here so that maybe your questions can be answered in one post:
- Museum Calf is a box calf with a pre-dyed patina like effect on it, giving it its marbled look. It is not an actual patina. It is drum dyed, just like black box calf
- You can condition it with Renovateur, but do not condition it too much. You cannot use Renomat on it. You will strip the ‘patina effect’ and you will not get it back.
- It has two shades to it, light patches and dark ones. This can be manipulated by polish. If you prefer to enhance the lighter patches, use a polish that is lighter. That can be neutral or one shade lighter. But do not use two shades lighter. For example, in the dark brown museum calf shown, I used a mid-brown to bring out the ‘under-tones.’ But do not use a tan polish on a dark brown museum calf. You will leave traces of light residue (really as neutral does too). I always prefer to use one shade lighter, as shown.
- Always condition your museum calf shoes before adding wax to it. Even if new. (Here I cheated a bit to make the post, but should have conditioned them first). It helps it absorb and accept the wax polish
- Too much dark cream polish will take away your museum effect. Wax is more difficult to achieve that so it is less risky for ‘ruining’ your patina effect. But that is not to be afraid of using cream polish. But always use sparingly
- Never ever try and strip your museum calf shoes with any kind of insolvent. You will easily remove the finish.
Saphir products, among many other great products in the industry, work well with building up your shine on your Museum Calf shoes as well as maintaining them. There is no better product than Saphir Renovateur and that is what will help you continue to maintain a brilliant shine on your shoes, giving the nutrients that the leather needs to not dry out your leather over time (which is what wax polish does). Follow these 6 simple steps to get the most out of your museum calf shoes.
