Army blanket, cleaning other than dry cleaning.

[Woody girl]

At the wilderness gathering, I bought a pristine 1943 American army blanket. It's got a nasty smell, almost like diesel or something along those lines. I can't quite place it. Metal polish sort of smell.
I want to get it cleaned and smelling sweeter, but the dry cleaning bill for it is stupidly expensive, in fact, more than it cost. (And its more chemicals)
Would it be OK to risk it on a wool wash in a machine? I have wool wash liquid.

 

[Tengu]

I wear a lot of wool clothing and I find the `wool` wash does just fine.

 

[Watch-keeper]

Have you tried hanging it outside for a day to see if that gets rid of the smell.

I have washed wool blankets in a machine but you have to be careful or they will come out misshaped.
Wash it on the wool setting with wool compatible soap let as much water drain out of it as possible then find somewhere flat to reshape and dry it.
You could also try a cool bath with soap suitable for wool and some hand agitation and a good rinse to see if that helps.

 

[Silverclaws2]

Potentially the pong of a paraffin - of which would be common with archaic pongo gear given lighting and cooking fuels.

I just hang ancient blankets out on the line to let wind, sun and sometimes rain when I forget to have a go at it

 

[Woody girl]

Potentially the pong of a paraffin - of which would be common with archaic pongo gear given lighting and cooking fuels.

I just hang ancient blankets out on the line to let wind, sun and sometimes rain when I forget to have a go at it

Ah, yes, it's a paraffin flavoured blanket. I knew I knew the smell, but couldn't place it!
I'll try hanging it on the line for a few days. If I can still detect it, I'll try a wash. Tho, it's very heavy dry, so it will be very hard work wet!
Cheers.
being such an old blanket, I was a bit wary of trying to clean it, and I definatly don't want to dry clean it with chemicals.
I got it (£15) to add to my plastic free bushcraft things, and want to make a wool sleeping bag with it over the winter.
It's dated April 1943. USA military blanket
It's not 100% wool, ( 75% wool, 25% synthetic fibre, ) but good enough, for a trial, as I realy don't want to kak up an expensive pure wool one.
If I can make something suitable, then I'll go for a pure wool one...maybe!

 

[Toddy]

Do you have a bath ?
You can soak the blanket in just hand hot water and soap of some kind. Gently sapple it. Don't agitate, don't rub. Let it drain down, repeat with clean rinses until it's free of grime and soap. Leave it lying in the bath overnight to drain down.
No stress on the fibres, just gravity draining most of the water away.

Works on kilts that cost me £80 a yard

 

[Silverclaws2]

Ah, yes, it's a paraffin flavoured blanket. I knew I knew the smell, but couldn't place it!
I'll try hanging it on the line for a few days. If I can still detect it, I'll try a wash. Tho, it's very heavy dry, so it will be very hard work wet!
Cheers.
being such an old blanket, I was a bit wary of trying to clean it, and I definatly don't want to dry clean it with chemicals.
I got it (£15) to add to my plastic free bushcraft things, and want to make a wool sleeping bag with it over the winter.
It's dated April 1943. USA military blanket
It's not 100% wool, ( 75% wool, 25% synthetic fibre, ) but good enough, for a trial, as I realy don't want to kak up an expensive pure wool one.
If I can make something suitable, then I'll go for a pure wool one...maybe!

Not all synthetics need be shunned for sometimes synthetics can aid the natural and particularly so when as with your blanket it's much more natural than synthetic. I have a 100% wool military blanket from 1974 in the less than covert colour of orange, I guess might have been a hospital blanket given it's ' king size ' and thickness to describe a rather wiry typically military nap yeah I remember that nap.

 

[Woody girl]

Do you have a bath ?
You can soak the blanket in just hand hot water and soap of some kind. Gently sapple it. Don't agitate, don't rub. Let it drain down, repeat with clean rinses until it's free of grime and soap. Leave it lying in the bath overnight to drain down.
No stress on the fibres, just gravity draining most of the water away.

Works on kilts that cost me £80 a yard

Yes I have a shower over the bath...but its full of items to be washed , due to not having a washing machine at present. I'm getting through it slowly.
It's the drying that will be a problem if i wash it.. We have rain predicted as from Monday all week, so I'm trying to get everything else done while I can use the outside line to dry it.
No rush for the blanket tho. It can wait a while. It's on the line now to try and off gas the paraffin smell as best as it can.
I came back from my two bushcraft weekends with so many projects! Plus it's max foraging and bottling and pickling time. Not enough hours in the day for it all.

 

[ONE]

Wool is washable. Although it sounds like it might be a pong from preservation chemicals, things that moths and bugs don't like. Try hanging it on a washing line for a few days.

 

[gllct0]

Wool program in the machine, stretch into shape, dryer on low, bath in lanolin, stretch into shape, lay flat to dry.

 

[Falstaff]

As you probably know, wool blankets are quite weak when wet and can tear/pull out of shape. I prefer a bath wash to a machine but after following Toddy's method and the long drain, I find gently rolling it up in the bath helps it drain a bit more, and it's easier to move around with less fabric strain when moving it for final drying. Unscrewing a broom pole or similar and rolling it loosely around that also make it easier to lift and carry around too.
But watch your back with lifting/washing heavy wet blankets/carpets etc. in/out of the bath.

 

[Toddy]

That's sound advice, both on the rolling it and on lifting it out

We used to lay woollens on top of a big towel and roll that up and gently twist it. It didn't distort jumpers and the like. Blanket's a bit big for it, but if you've got good drying weather, you can wrap up the drained blanket in a big beach towel or bath sheet and gently squeeze. The towel will end up sodden wet (they're cotton, cotton's a thirsty fabric) but all that water came from the wool stuff, so a win.