Club Obi Wan

Help!! I have a very tenacious grease stain on the front of my bag. It’s cooking or popcorn oil that spilled. I have tried simple green and have hand washed it but no luck. Any one know of a good stain remover that won’t kill an MKVII?

Cheers,
Jeff

Would Oxy Clean do the trick?

I don't know? Is Oxy Clean good for getting out grease stains?

Cheers,
Jeff

I know it's a gentle, but effective, detergent for vintage gear. Is this an original bag or a repro?

OxyClean SHOULD do the job. I found it very effective in cleaning up two of my bags that were stained up.

If not, you can always dip the entire bag in cooking or popcorn oil, to get a nice uniform color on the bag

It's dated 1941 so it's an origanal. I'll give Oxy Clean a try.

IB "If not, you can always dip the entire bag in cooking or popcorn oil, to get a nice uniform color on the bag "

I joked about that this morning.

Cheers,
Jeff

Would you like salt and extra butter with that?

This thread reminds me of the black-stripe controversy thread. There were all sorts of remedies to getting out stains on that one. I hate to bring it up again, but it can be found here:

http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... ack+stripe

Just ignore all of the drama. There is actually some useful information about bag cleaning there.

From a Steak and Cheese sub I got a nasty oil stain on my favorite LLBean pants while on my way to the first Gettysburg summit. I washed these pants at Neo's house and most of the oil came out. What didn't come out was hardly noticeable but appeared like it was permanent.

Took the pants home, washed them with a whole load of other khakis -And a pair just like them- and a scoop of Oxy-Clean. When the load was done I took the identical pairs of pants together and compared. I couldn't tell which one had the stain.

Oxy Clean has been the most recommended detergent for cleaning an original bag, so I would trust that judgement. It does the trick well and won't harm it like more abrasive cleaners can. I think the only drwaback was that it may lighten your original stampings a little, but it won't remove them if you clean it right. Good luck!

I don't mind if the stamps fade, they are pretty dark and heavy so a littl fade would be just fine. I'll pick up some Oxy Clean today. I'll let you know how it turned out.

Thanks to all and Cheers,
Jefff

Well I just picked up Oxy Magic and am washing my bag. Keeping fingers xed : The stuff said it had no bleach or chlorine so it sounded safe. My G/F said it's just like Oxy Clean (which my local store was out of.

Cheers,
Jeff

Well the bag has been washed and it looks a tad lighter but still nice. The stain came out a little so it's not as noticable. I think that oil stains in general are tough to get out. I don't want to push my luck so I will live with the bag as is. Heck I could always clame it was gun oil

Cheers,
Jeff

Well, glad it partially worked out for you... I like the gun oil explaination, too.

Glad to see all things worked out well. I would suggest giving it another soaking of the OxyClean(Magic) to try at that stain again. The bag shouldn't lighten any more, but the stain may come out more, especially if you scrub that area a bit.

Mix up a batch and put it onto the spot. Rinse.

Just don't make a bucket of oxi clean and water and by accident let your bag half soak in it for 24 hours.......

Can anyone say stiff white half bag.............. I knew you could.

Now I am in the market for a new one in the next few months.
~Jason

If Oxy fails which I suspect it might, becouse it is not a fresh stain, go to your local automotive store and buy a product called GOOP , it is a heavy duty grease remover, that and a good brush mixed with a little elbow grease and you will be amazed ...I use it on everything and it works great!.

IB: Not a bad idea I think. I've tried the kind of oil remover that has granules in it when removing mechanic oil from my hands and it works like no soap ever will. It is safe enough to scrub your skin with and should therefore be of no harm to the bag either.

Regards,
Swindiana

I believe GOOP can be found at Home Depot and Lowe's home improvement stores also.

Gobler wrote:Well the bag has been washed and it looks a tad lighter but still nice. The stain came out a little so it's not as noticable. I think that oil stains in general are tough to get out. I don't want to push my luck so I will live with the bag as is. Heck I could always clame it was gun oil

Cheers,
Jeff

I’m hesitant to recommend this because it needs a certain amount of artistic skill, and a lot of patience, but what makes MOST stains stand out are the edges left after using ALL or SOME of the products mentioned above. Try this only as a LAST RESORT. What you need to do is feather the edges out with thin washes of meticulously mixed acrylic artist tube colors with a spectrum laid out on a palette or mixing tray. It’s of course a good idea if you have a piece, possibly on the inside, to observe how the mixture reacts to the fabric and amount of ‘wash’ you’ll need to apply and/or build up to get the desired blending with the color of the adjacent original fabric. I’d recommend acrylic instead of artist oils or other medium because it is covers more easily should you make a mistake going to dark and you can apply washes quickly as soon as each coat dries. When you’re happy, apply a Krylon spray fixative.

The only other technique, and probably the less complicated, assuming you have gotten out all the stain you possibly can using the stain removal methods above, is to stratigically dust it with Fullers earth using a powder puff or something like a large round sable dabbing brush.

Or, use what the soldiers used... Blanco.

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/reenactors ... &offset=01

Regards,
Swindiana

Swindiana wrote:Or, use what the soldiers used... Blanco.

http://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/reenactors ... &offset=01

Regards,
Swindiana

So that's how your bags look so nice and uniform in color? :idea: I think perhaps I will try Blanco.

Cheers,
Jeff

You could try revitalizing the stain with whatever originally stained it. Then wash it while it's still wet. Sounds strange but it's always worked for me. K

Fighting fire, with fire. Great idea!

Indiana Jason wrote:Just don't make a bucket of oxi clean and water and by accident let your bag half soak in it for 24 hours.......

I have never heard of a anything losing all of it's natural color from Oxi-Clean. Then again, I only let things soak for an hour or so. I also use this stuff on my Khaki's everytime and none of them have faded. Hmmmm... did you use anything else with the Oxi-Clean?

I did try a stain remover stick first. Then went to Oxy magic. I thnk I just cleaned the bag back to the origanal color. As I said above I'm going to get some Blanco.


Cheers,
Jeff

Just so you guys know...blanco is not permanent. It is almost a clay like substance that will just cover the material. Do not be surprised if it comes off on your clothing. Seldom did British soldiers blanco the back of their web gear because it would get on their uniforms. Also, respirator cases were never blancoed becaused it interferred with the respirators. Just fair warning from someone who has used quite a bit of blanco (Brit. WWII reenacting).

--Scott

skbellis wrote:Also, respirator cases were never blancoed becaused it interferred with the respirators. Just fair warning from someone who has used quite a bit of blanco (Brit. WWII reenacting). --Scott

From what I've heard they did use it on the respirator cases, both the Mk VI (for those still issued with one) and the Mk VII and most other webbing that needed to blend in with the colour of nature as the beige/khaki colour didn't. That would also explain why most bags from 1943 tend to have a greener shade to them from the beginning with no need of getting blancoed. I'm not trying to make a point, just telling what I've heard from a bit of bag research. For those who have seen the next bag in line, the Lightweight gas mask (MkIII) it is indeed green with no exception. I don't know why the blanco would interfere with the apparatus, but I'm sure there is a good explanation since you have had you're share of reenaction. Handwashing my latest bag did get rid of what seemed to be quite a large share of blanco. Please PM me with further info in case you'd like to share this "off-board".

Kind regards,
Swindiana