I have to ware dress shoes for work. Sometimes I get some pretty deep scuffs in the finish of the shoe. I have all leather shoes that I keep well polished but you can still see a gouge or 2 around my toes. Is there any way to smooth these out?
Browsing around a bit on Google, I mostly find the phrase “Use matching polish to renew scuffed leather” repeated. So if it’s scuffed, you put some shoe polish on it.
If it’s really a “gouge” in the leather, you’re probably looking at a shoe repair place.
what can a shoe repair place do that i can’t?
You could try one of those “Seen on TV” products they feature at Walgreen’s among others.One of the products ** claims ** to repair leather,as in furniture.
Wouldn’t hurt to find the product and read the fine print before you buy.
If it’s a really deep gouge, the shoe repair place would replace the whole upper of the shoe, so unless you’re a cobbler… 
the shoes in question are a pair of doc martins. great shoes, but i only payed $90 for them and that was 4 years ago. i think a shoe repair place would charge me more to replace the upper part of the shoe then the shoes actually cost.
any one know if i would destroy my shoes if i got some fine grit sand paper and tryed to sand the gouges out?
I have a pair of Docs that were worn down to a pretty deplorable condition, but I found an interesting treatment:
Several layers of permanent marker combined with black nail polish and a good nail buffer did the trick. Kinda came upon it by accident, as I would sometimes color over the scuffs with the permanent marker out of boredom, and the nail polish spilled one day and when I buffed it out (still slightly wet) it seemed to work well.
Of course, it depends on the finish of the leather to begin with
one problem. i don’t know what a nail buffer is. is it that popsickle stick looking thing that has sandpaper on it?