Foraged Waxed Coat Help Please

[xylaria]

Christmas week I walked down an ally in town. There was two bags of clothes spillt all over the place. Basically I lifted a waxed coat out of the sodden pile of clothes. It looked too good a coat to end up in fly tipped rubbish getting peed on by rats.

It is a drizabone full length coat in my size.
one of these


I dried the coat out, but it still feels slightly damp to touch though. It also smells slightly musty with a vague hint of horse.

So how do i clean it and reproof it?

 

[Toddy]

If you're happy to do a really thorough job of it then you can either put it into the dry cleaners....they'll squawk, but it means that you have no worries about the lining shrinking in the wash.....or just simply soak it and wash it cool by hand.
Re proofing can be done just with homemade greenland wax or you can buy the reproofing stuff intended for the cotton.
If you have gotten beyond lucky, then you might have a removable merino liner inside, not just the cotton one. If it is it should come out fairly easily for washing.
Nikwax do a reproofing wash in stuff that's supposed to work very well for cottons too.

Getting the wax on....heat the jacket up, hung near a fire or above a radiator, or if you don't mind having to meths clean the tumble dryer afterwards....warm makes it supple and easy.

Brilliant find I look like a wee hen blackbird wandering around in my lookalike version but I'm dry and warm inside it

atb,
M

 

[mr dazzler]

When I reproofed my wax coat, I used a tin of barbour wax, warmed in a pan of hot water so it was liquid, then used a paint brush to brush it into the cloth (prewarmed in sections with a hair dryer), and soaked it right in with a further blast from the hair dryer.

 

[woof]

I don't know about the smell, but i use the nikwax spray on proofer for my coat in that style & it works well.

I wash my dogs bedding in a large bucket outside then hang it up to dry, could be a good way to do the coat.

Rob

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

You could try getting in touch with Drizabone and ask their advice. I know Barbour will take them back and clean and reproof there own jackets.

 

[Dogoak]

They can be washed, not recommended by the manufacturer! When I did my DrizaBone it was on 30 degrees with a non bio detergent. It will strip the wax so you will have to re-wax the whole jacket. I normally warm the wax a bit while the jacket is hung somewhere warm. I then use a shoe brush to apply the wax followed by a blow over with SWMBO's hairdryer for a 'factory' finish. I was a bit over zealous with the wax on one jacket that I did, the finish lasted for ages but it was the equivalent of wearing a cardboard box for a while!

 

[Coldfeet]

Great find!
Short vid on reproofing Barbour jacket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvZm04LxrbQ

 

[Ogri the trog]

Brilliant thread!
I recently scored a huge Driza Bone stockman but it smells a bit fausty so could do with similar treatment. I don't mind re-waxing but the information on washing will be very welcome.

Ta!

Ogri the trog

 

[Big Stu 12]

I dont know how much Drizabone would charge to re wax a Jacket, but I had a barbour rewaxed a about four years ago think it only cost about £25.00.

 

[xylaria]

Thanks for the advice.

I wore it to ffairfach market where smelling slightly like a horses is not unuseal. Smells seem to fade if worn. Drizeabone reproof costs 20quid for a coat this size. Washing if needed is cold water and no soap, anything else stuffs up the wax. It might be different on other coats. There are recipes for homemade reproofing, but they are based on linseed oil, parafin and beeswax, and sound a good way of making a long coat a fire hazard.

Dont know why the coat doesnt have a care label.

 

[woof]

Maybe just hanging up outside where it can air, will be the answer. The care label in mine(backhouse, purchased 1999/2000)says don't wash just sponge down.

Rob

 

[Nomad]

There are recipes for homemade reproofing, but they are based on linseed oil, parafin and beeswax, and sound a good way of making a long coat a fire hazard.

In the UK, it's called paraffin wax, while I believe it's just called paraffin in the US (and our paraffin is their kerosene).

I do still wonder about the fire risk with traditional dressings, but I'd have to say that I haven't encountered any tales of woe.

 

[markheolddu]

Thanks for the advice.

I wore it to ffairfach market where smelling slightly like a horses is not unuseal. Smells seem to fade if worn. Drizeabone reproof costs 20quid for a coat this size. Washing if needed is cold water and no soap, anything else stuffs up the wax. It might be different on other coats. There are recipes for homemade reproofing, but they are based on linseed oil, parafin and beeswax, and sound a good way of making a long coat a fire hazard.

Dont know why the coat doesnt have a care label.

Having been to Ffairfach your right, actually you probably smelled better than most.
I put my waxed coat (a Britton) through the washing machine, no long term damage after a good rewaxing.

 

[Ogri the trog]

There are recipes for homemade reproofing, but they are based on linseed oil, parafin and beeswax, and sound a good way of making a long coat a fire hazard.

Having worn various waxed coats over the years, I don't buy the "fire risk" element.

Even if you cook your own wax up from the recipes mentioned, all of the volatile components will have dispersed by the time the garment has dried.

I will admit that if you subject waxed cotton to prolonged high heat, then yes, it is likely to burn through or catch just as any average garment would.

But, worn with care and with sensible precautions around a fire - I wouldn't think it would be any worse than 99% of any common outdoor clothing.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Adze]

Mrs Adze has a drizeabone... it fair honks if I'm being nice, so much so that her coat has to live in my office in the garage as she won't keep it in the house. I'm not sure it's unusual for them to have a bit of an aura around them... it's certainly not down to overuse, as the only time she'll leave the house is to get in the car or if the house is actually on fire. After 13 years (tomorrow) I've never once seen her wear it.

 

[Toddy]

What does it smell of ?
If it's paraffin, then hanging it outside in the sunshine helps immensely.
Twenty+ years ago I bought a cheapie 'wax jacket', and the stench of petrolly wax was incredible. The jacket stained the wall it was hung against, stunk out the entire cupboard too, but worn outside it was brilliant. I had it with me when I was working one Summer and it was left out on the field where we were working. Three weeks worth of sunshine and it was a totally different jacket

M

 

[xylaria]

mine smells slightly like an old church. The smell certainly improves with wearing. It is an excellent bit of kit.

I am not keen on the idea of wearing a long piece of cotton that I know is soaked with linseed oil. The art school i used go to when I was 14 burnt down because a cotton cloth with linseed oil spontaiusly combusted. The expensive proofers probably have volitile solvents that evaporate off leaving just wax on the cloth. Which sounds a bit safer. Linseed also breeds mold. At the moment the my coat seems mostly watertight, I am was just concerned the musty smell was due to water getting into the fibres.

There does seem to be a lot differant opinions on the net of what the best way of keeping a coat clean and unsmelly.

 

[Toddy]

Tbh, unless it's something horrible that's on it, or the lining smells of someone else's sweaty miasma, then a thorough sponge down with soap and water will take off a tremendous amount of muck, and it won't destroy the waterproofing either.

Mine is still sound, still worn, still my favourite outdoor jacket and it owes me nothing. I've worn it to work, to wander, to forage, in the snow, the pouring rain and howling gales, gardening, clambering down burnsides, making fires, cooking over fires, sitting around fires, and there's not a single spark mark or tear on it.
The cuffs are going a bit shiny/greasy looking, but I made their linings from moleskin cloth and while comfortable and quite smart, they do show the grubbiness a bit. I suppose I could just call it character
That's it; bombproof, hot to work hard in, cold if you don't layer up and there's a nippy wind about, but honestly, one of the best waterproofs you'll ever get. (watch the cut of the pockets, some of the 'designer' ones have pockets that are badly sited/angled, and fill up with rain )

The kind of clothing that folks used to say wore clean

atb,
M

 

[Macaroon]

I wore these "stockman's coats" for years when I worked the horses and rode a lot, and in my experience of all the different makes they all smell when they come back into service after being reduntant for the summer.
I knew a couple of people who washed them, as some have recommended, but never knew any of these to be much good afterwards. As Toddy says, sponge down with lukewarm water and if you must a little pure soap, but you have to be 100% sure to leave no trace of soap on the coat afterwards, otherwisw it'll invite the water into the fabric - that's what soap does, eh? If mine ever got foul enough, I'd peg it securely for a day or two in the rain and let it dry in the open air.

I've had good results re-proofing with a mix of pure turpentine and beeswax, 40% of each, the other 20% a good pure parrafin wax; melted down in a bain-marie or double pot, applied with a sponge to warmes coat and
"helped in" with a hairdryer. Something to avoid is hanging the coat up in the warm, as the wax/oil will migrate to the bottom of the coat in a surprisingly short time and the yoke and upper sleeves will let in; best to roll it loosely (when bone dry) and store flat, Turn it over once in a while so the 'proofing doesn't all drain down...............Hope this helps...........atb mac

 

[treadlightly]

The instructions on my Drizabone say brush loose dirt off with a soft clothes brush then sponge or hose down with water. It warns against using soap or any other detergents unless you are planning to re-proof the coat.