Removing Tree Pitch?

[Elf]

Does anyone know if shampoo will work to get tree pitch out of wool? Let me go to the beginning of the story.

I must admit to being careless at the Tacoma Highland Games yesterday. It was very hot and in an effort to stay in the shade, I was careless about where I sat and wound up with tree pitch on my kilt. I immediately sought out my friends for advice on cleaning. One good piece of advice was to turn the kilt around before driving home so as not to set the pitch farther into the fabric. Also the air-conditioner blowing on it helped it to solidify. Sort of like putting it in the freezer when getting home.

Some of the pitch was old and allowed me to carefully roll it off. Some however was fresh and soft. One suggestion was rubbing (wood) alcohol (NOT drinking alcohol). That picked up some, but what was left soaked further into the fabric--oops. Another suggestion was to use brown paper and an iron like on a wax spill. Looking at old posts here, I see shampoo recommended for cleaning. Does anyone know if it works on pitch? Have you tried it?

I think what I learned most: one should turn around and go back home for the sitting pad when one realizes it has been forgotten. On the bright side, the woodsy smell is masculine.

[Todd Bradshaw]

This seemed to be something worth knowing for future reference, so I did a little digging and for around-the-house items that were good at removing tree sap from clothing. Four seemed to stand out above the others: hand sanitizer (like Purell, which is essentially an alcohol gel), mayonnaise (no, really), Goo Gone, and peanut butter (the oily natural kind). I have tartan scraps, but none with sap on them. Assuming that folks are telling the truth when they claim these things will eventually liquefy and carry away the sap when worked into the cloth, my bigger question was how they would affect the tartan and how hard it would be to remove the grease spot they left. So I figured I'd do a little testing to see.

I got so sick of the smell of Purell when I was in the hospital, that I won't allow it in the house, so that was out. Being a genuine American, the only peanut butter we have is either Skippy or JIF, and extra crunchy (probably what put me in the hospital) so they were out. Goo Gone and Mayo I have, so they were the test "solvents". So, I slathered a big blob of Mayo on a scrap of Dalgliesh heavyweight wool tartan and poured a generous spot of Goo Gone on another scrap. I put them on a white paper towel, to see if any dye washed out and rubbed the Mayo in with my fingers. The Goo Gone soaked in all by itself. I left them for about ten minutes.



Then it was time to try removing them, without resorting to a washing machine or similar treatment that you wouldn't do to a kilt. That meant blotting with a wet paper towel with a little bit of Dawn on it, flipping them over from time to time to work on the back side as well. There was absolutely no dye transfer or bleeding at any point in my test, and nothing was done which would abrade and fuzz the surface. Then I dried them with a hair dryer and an iron. The vast majority of the stuff came out, though my rather quick blotting probably wasn't enough. I think the mayo comes out a bit faster than the goo gone, but the goo gone might work faster on the sap. With more rinse-blotting (maybe the baby shampoo) I think the grease stains would probably all come out, and the Purell is also worth trying. We still don't know for sure how they work on the sap, but at least I wouldn't fear trying them on my tartan.

[bodhran4me]

I know peanut butter works on your hands, just don'tdon't go out in bear country afterwards......

I usually just scrape of the excess and rub dirt in what is left behind so it isn't sticky and geting on my other gear. I have never gotten pine sap on anything I really cared about so I am not much help but do wish you good luck. Maybe do Todd's test on your under apron to check for colourfastnes and staining.

[eahuntley]

I once saw someone use bug spray(probably DEET) to remove sap from a pair of jeans. It seemed to work okay on the jeans, but it wasn't anything like wool.

[Grizzled Ian]

I wonder if eucalyptus oil or tea-tree oil work as solvents for tree pitch. I have no idea if either of them stains woollen tartan fabric.

Now, I'm not expecting answers to my ponderings above, but I do thank Todd for the idea about testing offcuts. Who would have thought that about mayonnaise? And to think, they expect us to eat that stuff!

[Dughlas mor]

Mayonnaise, the classic cure for chewing gum in the hair. Great post, Todd.

[Todd Bradshaw]

If nothing else, it's nice to know that if you're at Burger King eating a Whopper and the bun lets go and dumps a mayo-slathered burger on your kilt, you can probably get the stain out. I also saw references for various types of cooking oil, WD40, spot removers, Goop handcleaner and other oil or solvent solutions, but hand sanitizer, Mayo, Goo Gone and Peanut butter were the most popular. If I can find a tree leaking some sap I'll try some on another sample and see if mayo will remove it. I wonder if my neighbor would mind me chopping a notch in the trunk of the 60' tall spruce in his front yard to get some sap out.......... I'll just tell him that I thought I saw some beavers in the neighborhood a couple nights ago (he grew up in Chicago and probably doesn't know that beavers don't eat spruce trees).

[Tenmiles]

GooGone may work to remove the pitch, though I'd be concerned about the fabric maintaining an unpleasant smell from it for a long time; it doesn't "wash out" that easily, and on a garment which is rarely ever laundered, it could be challenging.

[Benning Boy]

Pitch desolves easily in turpentine. I've used turpentine to remove pitch from regular clothes. I see no reason why it won't work on wool. Of course, the kilt would need to be aired awhile to get the odor out, perhaps dry cleaned. Dry cleaning involves the use of solvents, turpentine works as a solvent, so why should it be harmful to wool? I make simplified varnish every once in a while by dissolving pitch in turpentine. If you just use a little turpentine to remove the pitch, you might just be smearing varnish around. Use a lot, get it wet.

White gas should work as well. One way of cleaning high quality wool felt hats is to soak them in white gas, which dissolves the grime. If it won't hurt high-dollar hats, I doubt it would do any harm to wool tartan.

[Stitchwiz]

FYI - Mayo is made with oil and eggs so don't worry about eating it, if it's homemade. It's the other additives you need to worry about.

I don't know if it's my screen, but I think I can see an oily mark on both samples. They look darker than the centre sample. Personally, I'd use the alcohol and continue to blot as needed. I know that eventually all the pitch will come out. Then gently wash out any residue, rinse and let it dry.

Odour - Vinegar will help remove any tough odours once the stain is gone. Just set a dish with plain white vinegar near the kilt and it will take the odour away - and any other odours as well. This is my go to deodorizer.

I used to run the QM Stores for the Army Cadets. When we pulled all the tents out of the QM, the cadets would set them up in the parade hall and set a dish of vinegar inside each one for the evening. When the tents were rolled up at the end of the night, they smelled sweet. They smelled just fine when they were set up the following weekend out in our bush.
Tents can smell horrid after sitting for a year in storage - so vinegar is now kept in the QM Stores just for this purpose.