Straws and naphtha bath?

[pjt113]

Hi Everyone,

I picked up a couple vintage straws that are pretty dirty and I was wondering if you can give straws a naphtha bath? Or to clean them up should I just use some of the white fuel on a cloth and wipe them down?

Thanks in Advance.

 

[fedoracentric]

I don't think that will do any good. The naptha is for fur felt, sure, but I don't think it does a thing to straw. In fact, I'd be worried it may do damage to a straw.

Can someone pitch in here and let us know for sure?

 

[Seb Lucas]

I remember people using lemon juice on straws to clean and to bleach. But you can't do it if there is cotton thread present, it breaks up the fiber.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Anyone ever use Bickmore "nu-straw"?

 

[barrowjh]

On page 38 of Ermatinger's 'Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating' he talks about adding greasy panamas to light color felts for the overnight gasoline bath - stacking them on top to avoid crushing. So, the naptha / gasoline applied via dabbing cloth is probably ok, but avoid the problem with over-cleaning a spot and creating a white spot. Work the spot that is nasty, and then dab all around to give all of it a taste of gasoline - everything but the leather sweatband, of course.

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Gasoline?! really? That sounds a bit harsh, but I know they used to use it in some dry cleaning processes. I recently accidentally doused myself with gas at the pump when gassing my car up. Some dope left the nozzle latched open and the gas just came pouring out before I could get it into the filler on the car.
My clothes were ruined, and not really worth saving anyway and my shoes took a good hit also. Being fairly new shoes, and rather expensive, I decided to wait out the awful reeking gas fumes. My shoes took about a month or so to lose the gasoline stench. I had to put them in a fairly big cardboard box with some activated charcoal to absorb the fumes. I suppose you'd have to do the same with anything that's been soaked in gas?

 

[barrowjh]

No, naptha / coleman white gas / toluene (any of those) are fairly 'clean' gasoline, more like what Ermatinger was dealing with 100 years ago, than anything available at a pump today. I am familiar with the coleman fuel and the smell is gone reasonably quickly with no special treatment. Not as quickly as the felt dries, but reasonably soon thereafter. I use the coleman fuel as a last step - to clean out residue of other cleaners and any malingering odors. Some people are more sensitive and say it takes 3 days, but I cannot smell it after a day, but my sensitivity to smell is fading (age). Well ventilated (outdoors) and low humidity - the smell is gone in a few hours, not even a day.

 

[ingineer]

Beat me to it!

The book does not refer to modern gasoline but rather Naptha.
Think Coleman fliuld.Remember the time it was written
Still that does seem harsh.Better for grease and spot clean
Start gentle ,Brush well,then a very diluted mix of ammonia and water in a spray bottle.
If the straw is white use dilute hydrogen peroxide.
Spot test all cleaners!!!
Good luck
Richard

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Ahh,..ok. I getya. Naptha was referred to as gas back then. I've actually used it to clean a hat once myself. Worked quite well except that it caused the old embroidered silk liner in the hat to shatter. Got all the dirt and hair products out though without harming the felt or the sweatband.

 

[Mystic]

Not a straw hat or even a hat question.

Has anyone tried using Naphtha to clean old dirty 100% horsehair hat brushes?

 

[LuvMyMan]

Not a straw hat or even a hat question.

Has anyone tried using Naphtha to clean old dirty 100% horsehair hat brushes?

Hello. I have used just regular dish soap and let them dry after lathering the brush up and rinsing the hell out of them. Seems to work fairly decent, too.

 

[LuvMyMan]

Hi Everyone,

I picked up a couple vintage straws that are pretty dirty and I was wondering if you can give straws a naphtha bath? Or to clean them up should I just use some of the white fuel on a cloth and wipe them down?

Thanks in Advance.

Not sure where I have observed the product, I will see if I can find it and provide a link for purchasing, but there is a spray soap/cleaner for Straw and Panama hats, it works very good, leaves a clean surface, does not mess up the hat at all, will not strip off the finish of the hat, and has no "gas" sort of chemicals in the ingredients. Not an expert, Daniel used this product a few years ago on a straw hat he has, it worked really nice. One element you have to think about as that straw is not as "hardy" a material as a felt/beaver/rabbit hat. Some straw perhaps would suffer a damage to it, is you used the wrong "cleaning" substance on it.

Bickmore does make a straw hat cleaner, but the cleaner Daniel used was not Bickmore. If I am not mistaken, it was not cheap but worked really well. Spray it on, let it sit for about 10 minutes, take the hat outside, shake the extra wetness off, wipe the hat dry. Used a new white wash clothe on the hat and you could see the buildup of dirt and sort of a "film" come right off. Hopefully I can find this product, we just do not recall at the moment what it was or where it was sold, seems maybe eBay?

 

[Mystic]

Hello. I have used just regular dish soap and let them dry after lathering the brush up and rinsing the hell out of them. Seems to work fairly decent, too.

Thanks, Does this clean out dark dye and coloring picked up from brushing darker hats?

 

[Rick Blaine]

Note: I have not tried this!



From the Goorin hats website

 

[LuvMyMan]

Thanks, Does this clean out dark dye and coloring picked up from brushing darker hats?

It made the Hat look new. I am still looking for this product, maybe later can find and provide a link.

 

[LuvMyMan]

From the Goorin hats website

I think that would work on a really white hat but we know peroixide is a bleach, perhaps it would "bleach" some straw to lose a bit of color....?