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My very UNscientific test of 3 Patch Cleaners


Wedgehead30
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Well I guess it should be two cleaners and a whitener. But anyway, I always seem to have a box full of dungy, dirty patches that could use a little sprucing up. Rust stains from paper clips, staples and thumb tacks, yellowing from cigarette smoke, animal urine, mothball stench and on and on. We all know the drill. Otherwise decent patches for new collectors, handouts at shows or maybe just place holders until a better one comes along, if they were clean.

 

So I'm always looking for a good method to safely clean without damage. My normal routine is an overnight soak in Orvus Quilt Soap followed by a clean rinse and drying on a wire rack. If I get a curl from the soak I'll give it a light press with a warm iron while between to pieces of batting. I've had very good results so far. No fabric damage, color bleeding, fading or glow from the soap since there's no phosphates.

 

Having recently had very good results cleaning a white uniform with Oxiclean and Mrs. Stewart's Bluing Liquid I thought I'd try it with some patches. And I figured I'd document my results here so others can learn by my failure or success.

 

For this round I'm using my old standby, Orvus Quilt Soap and the two newbies Oxiclean and Mrs. Stewart's Bluing Liquid.

 

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So here we go. My victims or samples are standard service forces patches. I tried to find three that were close in filthiness. Plus one "next to new" patch to set the bar.

 

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A quick check under the UV to make sure I don't already have a glow. I'll do it again when I'm done to make sure I didn't add one.

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I mixed up the three contenders. You really have to SAWG this part. There's no directions on an amount this small. I used one drop of bluing liquid to get the "sky blue" look they describe on the bottle. The Oxi and Quilt I just used a small pinch. Remember I said this was UNscientific.

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So they're sealed up and I put them to bed for the night at roughly 10pm. We'll see what they look like in twelve hours or so.

 

Stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel...... ;)

 

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I just pulled them out to dry after about a 14 hour soak and rinse. I'll let them dry all day and see what they look like tonight. I gotta say the Oxiclean (center) patch is looking pretty bright and clean. But it's still wet so we'll see.

 

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Charlie Flick

Neat experiment, and good info to have as many of us have a few grungy patches laying around that we are afraid to fool around with. I will follow this with interest.

 

Charlie

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Well all dry and looking pretty good.

 

The Quilt Soap did a nice job as it always has. Brightened the colors and whitened, no bleed, no fade and no glow under the UV.

 

The Oxiclean did a great job. It really brightened the white and the other colors really pop. No bleed, no fade but I did pick up some glow under the UV light. I think that it might be a rinse issue. I'm gonna give it a few more rinses and soak it in distilled water overnight. Then I'll look at it again.

 

The Mrs. Stewart's doesn't seem to have much effect. Plus I picked up some glow.

 

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The Quilt Soap did a great job with no negative effects.

 

The Oxiclean did an awesome job but now I have that pesky UV glow. Though the glow is scattered and not uniform. It's clear that it's not the fibers but something on or in them that glows.

 

Mrs. Stewart's seems to have had no effect. And I picked up a partial glow.

 

For now I'm not changing my cleaning regimen. I'm sticking with the Quilt Soap. I will continue to experiment with the Oxiclean and see if I can resolve the UV glow issue.

 

So there you have it. Take it for what it's worth and feel free to comment.

 

Regards,

Scott

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Thanks for posting Scott. Where do you get the quilt soap?

 

I wonder if you flushed the oxyclean with clean water and vinegar if it would cut out the soap and the glow?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thanks for posting Scott. Where do you get the quilt soap?

 

I wonder if you flushed the oxyclean with clean water and vinegar if it would cut out the soap and the glow?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

I've been buying my Orvus Quilt Soap from a vendor on ebay of all places. I can't find it locally. I think Amazon carries it too.

 

Good idea on the vinegar. I did a few more clean water rinses and 1 hour soak in white vinegar. Followed by a long clean water rinse. Unfortunately it had no effect on the glow. I think it might of actually made it more pronounced.

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Thought it was worth a shot I know it will flush out some things like cat pee etc.

 

Looks like the quilt soap is the clear winner here. I bet their sales will triple!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I hope you don't mind that I'm adding a result also. After reading your posts i thought I would try cleaning one of my patches. A few years ago, I bought this patch on-line thinking it was an original. I could see the stain, but didn't notice the other details indicating it was a fake. When I got it, I was somewhat disappointed (actually more annoyed at myself) but thought it would make an interesting "project patch" to try to clean. I wasn't sure what to try though.

 

Your posts reminded me about the patch and, assuming that it was a marker of some type, I first tried isopropyl alcohol (70%). Using a q-tip, i soak the stained area and let it set about an hour. I rinsed with cold water and then let it dry. There was no discernible difference.

 

 

After the patch dried, I tried soaking it in an oxiclean bath. As noted above, there is no guidance on how to use a small amount, so I filled a small tray with warm water and used a small scoop. I then mixed it until it dissolved and added the patch. After about 8 hours, during which I would periodically "scrub"the patch with my fingers, I rinsed it in cold water and let dry.

 

I thought the results were good. However, by using the method I used, I don't know if the alcohol had any effect or if it acted as a pre-treatment. That being said, I have a become a big fan of oxiclean! I found the quilt soap that you mentioned and will pick up a bottle to try.

 

Please feel free to comment or make recommendations on my treatment of this patch. Here are the before and after shots.

 

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Very useful thread. Thanks to all.

 

Does anyone have an experience with Woolite? I tried it a couple of times with great results, but never tested the results with UV light.

 

Thanks, Al

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Does anyone have an experience with Woolite? I tried it a couple of times with great results, but never tested the results with UV light.

 

 

Try everything, every solvent, every cleaner, on any possible variant of medium and support.

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Very useful thread. Thanks to all.

 

Does anyone have an experience with Woolite? I tried it a couple of times with great results, but never tested the results with UV light.

 

Thanks, Al

 

 

I have used Woolite in the past. Usually there is a slight improvement but nothing as good as the oxiclean or Quilt soap. I did not get any glow from Woolite either.

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I hope you don't mind that I'm adding a result also.

 

No, not at all. The more information the better.

 

You had some very dramatic results, very impressive. Did you pick up any UV glow from the Oxiclean?

 

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No, not at all. The more information the better.

 

You had some very dramatic results, very impressive. Did you pick up any UV glow from the Oxiclean?

 

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I didn't test for the UV glow as the patch was a repro and I figured it would just glow like a house on fire anyway. The next one that I do, I will photograph the before and after of the glow and I'll also measure the amount of powder that I am using.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm impressed with the detail of how described each process and using three pieces from your collection. I'm new here and have some early WW2 patches of my grandfather's and wondered how badly I can screw up trying to clean one. Thanks for all you did here.

 

 

Semper Fi,

 

Tom

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  • 3 months later...

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