What does spit polish mean?
It is a method of getting a brilliant and hard shine on the toes and heels of Army boots by applying shoe polish on a soft cloth in small circular rubbing motions and alternating that with some fluid. Water is OK but spit is better. It takes hours to get the boots up to parade ground standard but once done it is relatively easy to maintain. These days chemical substitutes are used to get a brilliant high shine. It originated in times when there was no TV and soldiers were so poorly paid as to not be able to go out more than once a fortnight so they had lots of time on their hands and Officers and NCOs worked at finding time consuming work for them.
