Naptha and Spray on Hat cleaner result.

[zetwal]

zetwal, I do not understand what you mean by "pox"

I think that I confused your hat with another. Someone else was cleaning a severely spotted OR with naphtha, and I expressed doubt that the "pox" would come out completely. Must have been another thread.

Sorry for the confusion!

 

[John in Covina]

There are various grades depending I think on how much parafin in the naptha. I use Coleman fuel (white gas) and it works well for spots and such. I had the spray crap give off the white dust for ages and did the naptha rinse. i used an old cooking pot, washed it out. I also let the hat air out for a day or so on the back porch to get the fumes out.

 

[jkingrph]

I did mine yesterday, and only used the Coleman fuel. I had some regular naptha on hand for a rinse but did not use it. After about 1.5 - 2 hours drying time neither my wife or I noticed any petrochemical odor.

 

[barrowjh]

The ability of the odor to stick around seems to be dependent on the humidity and maybe the temperature. On a cool or cold, damp evening in East Tennessee it seems to take forever for the felt to dry out. I use the technique John is talking about, except using the spray without the white silica (or whatever) in it. Spot clean it first, then the fuel. I've always presumed the coleman white gas was the same as naptha, but I am wrong about that. In the Ermatinger book (1919) the cleaner was simply gasoline, which was likely purer than what we get at the pump today, so coleman white gas is a fair replication.

I think in a few cases I have repeated the process, and thought that maybe I should use the fuel to take out the crease grease first, then spot clean with the spray, then a more complete fuel rinse.

However, pragmatics begin to creep into the decision. A stain that has been in felt for decades is not going to completely come out, and excessive cleaning reaches a point of sharply decreasing marginal returns. Also, sometimes the darkness of the crease lines is because the felt is relatively 'dead' there from being flexed too much. As the felt 'unfelts' in these weak spots it does not reflect light as well as the felt around it, so it begins to take on a darker tone. The more you mess with that, the darker it gets, so sometimes you just do a fair clean up job and after it is all done, evaluate whether the end result is a 'beater' or a 'keeper.'

Another aspect of restoration that goes beyond the cleaning agent is doing a little bit of 'pouncing' - adding to the risks and rewards, and a subject that is going off-topic. It has been thoroughly discussed here in the past, but I do not have that link handy.