Restoring terribly salt stained J&Ms with Patina

Just yesterday, I watched a video of Steve from Bedo's Leatherworks restoring an Allen Edmonds with salt stains too. He called it Swedish bath, he cleaned it with white vinegar, then soak the shoes in water, filled the shoes with tissue paper.. also covered the salt stained area with tissue and kept it inside a plastic bag for 2 days. It did the trick. Nice pro tip that I might use with my own shoes.

If at first you don't succeed, dye, dye and dye again. Thank you for posting this.

This was very cool. I love it when a person takes something that’s basically worthless and makes it something I’d be proud to own.

You worked some magic there.

Why is it that anyone who posts a YT video is subjected to armchair warriors who are always ready to tell him how he did it incorrectly and how he should have done it. The critics usually have no videos of their own, they just take shots at people who take the time and effort to educate and entertain others. Mr. Powers, I appreciate your videos and I think you have a lot of knowledge. Please ignore the critics and the sarcastic comments. These twits do not speak for the majority of us. Thanks, Ian

I had a customer bring back an all leather (veg tanned) radio harness that I built him. It needed to be repaired after 3 years of use/him sweating into it. It was salt stained. I soaked it in water a few times to get the salt out and used Leather New on it, it fixed the smell too. Also an oil dye would allow you to build up the color more slowly than alcohol based dyes.

Had the same bumpy trail on both of my boots,used your method and they have come up great,thanks for posting.

Good job Mr Powers. Engineering to Finance to Car Geek to Shoe Restoration and all around good guy!!! I’m proud to have had the opportunity to work with you and call you my friend.

Your videos are all incredibly helpful. I hope you keep doing this and will gather much more subscribers on the way.

Great job on that restoration. It also shows just how badly you can damage a shoe and still recover a near new look using the right tools. I live in NYC and dread the winter months for the danger they pose to my shoes heading in and out to the office....this year I plan on just buying a pair of "wear ever" boots that I'd throw on when rain/snow/slush refuse to give footwear a break!

Brilliant result and you are only doing it as a hobby.

Trial and error, the only way you learn. Great work.

I think the shoes look great! You mentioned something about light sanding and it made me think of something. Sometimes the car detail guys will use magic erasers for that purpose on car leather. It is basically equivalent to super high grit sandpaper. Just thought it might be worth trying maybe. Regardless, can't argue with the results. Thanks for the video. Just stumbled across the channel today.

Whoa buddy, I think you're being too modest. That rivals a lot of the pro's! Happy New Year! Thanks for another great video.

Great job, Bob!

thanks for posting

Great restoration!

Wow.. J&M are pretty well constructed shoes. I did not expect that.

Hi Robert, I have a quick question. When I put a neutral wax polish on my shoes to give a bit a shine, the solvents dissolved the cream polish I used to re-pigment/nourish and patina my shoe. Do you know what I could do about this? I let the shoe dry overnight so the cream polish was completely dry and well set, then I quickly brushed it just to make sure it was clean and give a soft shine, but like I said, when I added just a bit of neutral wax polish, the cream polish patina(black on brown just like in your video) was completely dissolved. This was frustrating because it took me a long time to get the patina just right, but the finish was a rather flat and dull matte. I'm not generally crazy about getting a super high gloss shine on my shoes, I mean I don't want a marine corps mirror gloss spit shine, but I think getting a little bit of sheen would make the shoe look a lot better, it just adds depth and dimension to the shoe. I used Saphir cream polish, medium brown, and black, and their "high gloss" wax polish(I'm not sure it's Pate de Luxe, but it does come in a 50 ml tin) and well, what happened is what I said above, just the slightest bit immediately started to instantly dissolve and completely remove the cream polish. Anyway, I actually repolished and patinaed the shoe as I'm desperate to wear it, do you have any ideas on what I should do? I wouldn't want to wear it as is. I was thinking about spraying some silicone based waterproofer on the shoe, maybe 2 or 3 coats to give it some protection and hopefully even the slightest bit of shine, then maybe try adding the wax polish again.

The patina on the toe caps looks very natural—hate the gaudy patina and “antiquing” found on a lot of new shoes now. Great job.