I still have my first pair of knee-high leather boots. They were Fluevog Angel Boots, though I didn’t know what Fluevog was at the time, I was sixteen. Although the soles are now virtually nonexistent and the toes are scuffed beyond recognition I still have them, because they are a part of my past, a part of my life for so long. I still remember going to birthday dinner at my favorite chinese place in my hometown the same evening I got them and being so excited to have them snug around my calves.

I’ve been a lover of leather boots ever since. I’ve been thinking recently that leather boots may go so far as to being a fetish of mine, and not just in a talismanic sense. The feel of leather surrounding my flesh is intoxicating, and taking my Owner’s boots off for him or the idea of his boot pressed against my body fills me with pleasure. I discovered Lee Harrington‘s video Sole/Soul: The Art of Leather (a free video that anyone can watch, btw, even if you’re not a member) a while ago and even before watching it I had the desire to learn bootblacking, but it inspired me to start seriously looking into it.

When I first brought bootblacking up to Onyx he told me that he learned how to spit shine when he was in the army and promised to teach me how to do it. My mentioning of it piqued his interest in it again and he went out and got some basic bootblacking supplies to see if he could still remember how to do it. He has done a bit of bootblacking himself since, though usually when I am rushing to get ready for an event and he is waiting for me, so there hasn’t been time for full instruction.

Though he could mostly remember how to high shine his skills had atrophied a little bit so we both turned to Kink Acadmey for further instruction and found three videos by Q: Basic Bootblacking Kit and How to Polish Oil Tan Boots Part 1 & Part 2.

Most of the supplies mentioned in the Basic Bootblacking Kit were ones that we already had. Though we haven’t gone out and grabbed quite the same collection of polish that Q shows in the video we have enough to get started on a few pairs of boots.

For the holidays I was given a pair of knee-high leather earth boots (style Hype in case you are interested) that work well for the oil tan polish that Q instructs on, so I got to work. It was actually quite easy once I got started, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of working so intimately with the leather, though I did wish I had someone wearing the boot like she mentions in the video. Since they are so long I had to lay them down on the table, which worked okay, but it would have been much more fun with someone’s feet and legs actually in them.

I was quite impressed with the results. I wasn’t sure how much of a difference I would get since I wasn’t shining the boots but conditioning them with the Leather Lube, as you can see above, however, there is quite a difference. While I was shining them I decided to put on Sole/Soul: The Art of Leather again since I hadn’t watched it in a while and I felt I got even more out of it this time as I was working with leather beneath my hands while listening to his words.

I’m really excited about adding this skill to my repertoire and am looking forward to getting to work on different boots. Now I just need to find the time to get Onyx to show me how to do a shine polish.

-Scarlet Lotus