help ;with hat spot cleaning

[Ordinary Guy]

Here is my dilemma.

Found a hat at an estate sale it is a Barclay.... Of course I never heard of it but seems like a very nice hat. It says inside Kettle Felted (whatever that is)

Hat is in great shape but a small spot under the brim....

So I tried to clean it with Bickmore Hat Cleaner.. I did as the can said, spray it on, let it dry, brush it off.....

So the small spot diminished by 50% but obviously the cleaner soaked all the way through the brim and I now have a big spot on top of the brim. :rage:

I know I read here one time of someone with this problem. They were advised to put something on the spot and let it draw out the residue cleaner...

If I remember it worked for them but I have tried searching and there are just way too many threads to try and find that answer..

Anyone know what would work here to remove the ring on top of the brim???

 

[RBH]

If I remember right its unscented Talcum powder.
Sprinkle it on, wait awhile, and brush off.
Please check further before you do this [and see if you get any more answers] ..as I just might not remember it right.

 

[RBH]

Found this thread

 

[zetwal]

I am one of those who have had good results with talcum in similar situations. Buler too has reported as much.

Sprinkle it on and leave overnight. Brush it off in the morning.

 

[CRH]

If I remember right its unscented Talcum powder.
Sprinkle it on, wait awhile, and brush off.
Please check further before you do this [and see if you get any more answers] ..as I just might not remember it right.

Yup, I've used talc to remove rings left by lighter fluid and K2R. The unscented talc is hard to find but baby powder works fine. Just be prepared to smell like you just had your diaper changed.

Just rub the talc in lightly with a finger and let it sit overnight.

Now brush and brush, and repeat the process until the stain is gone or until you run out of talc or you run out of felt or you run out of bristles, whichever comes first.

I've had good luck removing fresh wine stains with a dogs tongue.

 

[Ordinary Guy]

Yup, I've used talc to remove rings left by lighter fluid and K2R. The unscented talc is hard to find but baby powder works fine. Just be prepared to smell like you just had your diaper changed.

Just rub the talc in lightly with a finger and let it sit overnight.

Now brush and brush, and repeat the process until the stain is gone or until you run out of talc or you run out of felt or you run out of bristles, whichever comes first.

I've had good luck removing fresh wine stains with a dogs tongue.

Thanks everyone, I am off to get some Talc, appreciate the link....

Removing fresh wine stains with a dogs tongue huh???

Does the dog prefer dry or semi sweet ? lol

Of is that where the saying "Hair of the dog that bit you" came from....

 

[Mav]

I've had good luck removing fresh wine stains with a dogs tongue.

I've found this also works with spilled beer.

 

[zetwal]

My vote is to have an infant drool on your hat. Here's why ...

Once day a friend brought her infant son over to my place and sat him on her lap so that he could play on one of my drums. The child began pounding away and in his excitement drooled on the drum. Within seconds I wiped it clean and noticed that 15 years of grime had been stripped right off the drumhead! Six or eight years later the spot where the little boy drooled is still perfectly clean. The rest of the drum head is at least as dirty as it was the day that I discovered firsthand the remarkable cleaning power of infant saliva.

 

[RBH]

My vote is to have an infant drool on your hat. Here's why ...

Once day a friend brought her infant son over to my place and sat him on her lap so that he could play on one of my drums. The child began pounding away and in his excitement drooled on the drum. Within seconds I wiped it clean and noticed that 15 years of grime had been stripped right off the drumhead! Six or eight years later the spot where the little boy drooled is still perfectly clean. The rest of the drum head is at least as dirty as it was the day that I discovered firsthand the remarkable cleaning power of infant saliva.

lol

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[fenris]

What about sweat stains? Is it possible to remove? I tried brushing and nothing happened. The sweat stains are on the underside of the brim near the sweatband... nobody can see it when I'm wearing the hat, but it's starting to bug me.

 

[Falcon Park]

1 part white vinegar and 3 parts water works very nicely (just like on carpet). Spray or dab onto the spot with a sponge and blot dry with a clean cloth. If it's a tougher stain, try 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water. If the stain is an old one, you can try adding a small drop of dish detergent to the mixture.

Good luck!

 

[zetwal]

1 part white vinegar and 3 parts water works very nicely (just like on carpet). Spray or dab onto the spot with a sponge and blot dry with a clean cloth. If it's a tougher stain, try 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water. If the stain is an old one, you can try adding a small drop of dish detergent to the mixture.

Let's make it 1002 uses ...

http://www.vinegartips.com/scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=7

 

[Falcon Park]

I'm tellin' ya', it's the unsung hero of cleaners and solvents!

 

[Lord Stirling]

Felt scuffing fix?

Hey everybody,

I recently got another Borsalino. This one is a mid 50's Bowler/Derby style hat.

There is some scuffing on the felt, maybe the result of rubbing, towards the rear midway up the crown on the right side.

Does anybody know if this can be fixed, and if the felt can be restored to its original quality?

Are there any techniques I could use, or could a professional restoration remedy this?

Thanks for your time!

There's also a tiny bit of what looks like pen ink on the top of the back of the crown. Any ideas how to safely remove this?

 

[Andykev]

Steam it gently from the tea kettle, sending a steady GENTLE steam to the area. You can brush it with a SOFT hat brush, or similar (soft bristles).
Sometimes a slightly damp washcloth brushed against the felt, with the grain.

From the photo, it isn't bad to start with, so EASY EASY does it.

 

[RJR]

Agreed,steam and gentle brushing.

 

[alanfgag]

Perhaps a Borsalino velour Marque Grand Luxe? The velour finish will love some R&R with steam as Andykev suggests. Keep the steam away from the leather sweatband. The pen mark will be harder. Spot cleaning might remove some of it but also lighten the surrounding area. Probably best to live with it after steaming and brushing.

It is not a bowler/derby - it is a fedora.

 

[tonyb]

Seeing how that ink (apparently) mark is on the top of the hat, and therefore fairly inconspicuous, it's probably best to leave it be. Using some sort of abrasive to remove it, which may very well "work," runs the very real risk of doing more harm than good. What you'd be doing is removing the very material the hat body is made of down to the depth of the ink mark itself. So yeah, the stain would be gone, but so would some felt. And that may be more noticeable than that ink mark was.

This all depends on just how deeply that ink penetrates the felt, of course. I have some mildly abrasive blocks, with flat surfaces and sharp surfaces at the corners. If that hat were mine, I might be tempted to see if lightly abrading that mark with the sharp corner addresses the problem. If it worked without cutting too deeply into the felt (not very deeply at all, really; you wouldn't wish to wear it thin, creating a weak spot, especially near a crease), well, I'd call that a success.

For now, though, I say live with it. Again, you run the very real risk of doing more harm than good.

 

[Lord Stirling]

Thabks for the tips, everyone. I'll try a genthe steaming and soft brushing to start, and see how it comes out.

I'm going to repost this to a new thread. Somehow I acidenrally posted it as a reply to this one. I apologize for hijacking the thread. I'll inclue other pics on the new thread, and maybe we can figure out exactly what model hat this is too.

 

[Lord Stirling]

Felt scuffing fix?

Hey everybody,

I recently got another Borsalino. The exact model is unknown to me, although I'm pretty certain from the information I DO have about it that it's from the mid 50's.

There is some scuffing on the felt, maybe the result of rubbing, towards the rear midway up the crown on the right side.

Does anybody know if this can be fixed, and if the felt can be restored to its original quality?

Are there any techniques I could use, or could a professional restoration remedy this?

Thanks for your time!

There's also a tiny bit of what looks like pen ink on the top of the back of the crown. Any ideas how to safely remove this?

Here are a couple more pictures of the hat. I'm not sure if the liner is the original, or a replacememt, as there was another more heavily used liner in the box as well. The hat looks fairly untouched tbough, aside from the above marks, and some Marka on the brim from being stored. I'll include pics of those as well.

As you can tell, I've used a stretcher.

I'm not sure if a ything can be done about these marks from storage, it I figure if anybody would know, it would be you all here.

There are probably worse than the camera makes them look. I don't know if the felt can be revitalized or not.

You guys are the best! Thanks for your help.