IHE-37-BLK - 21oz Denim Waist Bag - Superblack Non-Fade
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Ok, finally. After all of my saying I need to do this, it happened today. Will take advantage of the nice warm sunny holiday/weekend to ensure it's can fully dry.
I tried to capture a before showing all the dirt on the surface. The side by side under the snap pocket really shows how ready this was to be cleaned. Did everything in a small bathroom sink. Soaked in clean warm water, brushed, soaked in dr bronners, brushed, and then rinsed a few times until I was satisfied. Now hanging to drip dry a bit. Will update after it fully dries.
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@pechelman this type of update is rad, keep 'em coming!
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Thanks @Oaktavia !
Minor update already. It started to dry and it wasn't looking clean at all. It went back in for another soak, soap, and scrub, this time with some oxyclean and actual laundry detergent. The water got even more brown than this. Keep in mind this was after 4 previous soaks...
I'm half wondering now if some of the dirt and grime might actually be a little bit of sun fading. I gave up though after another hour of two more soapy scrubbing soaks, two rinses, and it's now drying for real now outside.
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Well, I kinda feel defeated. I tried everything I could but I'm not sure what else to try anymore. Maybe dry cleaning?
After yesterday, I was still unhappy so I bought an upholstery cleaner for small items. Bonus is that I've needed one for a while to clean some actual upholstery so now that can be done. Overall, I think it helped a little but it's still not really cleaned. Unfortunately, while it's "cleaner" it now has a pretty uneven griminess so it maybe looks even dirtier than when I started. Oh well.
If I were to do this over, I'd start in real hot water with oxyclean and maybe something to degrease and let it sit without any scrubbing for an hour. Then I'd take a wet/dry vacuum to it or an upholstery cleaner, again, without scrubbing. My guess is that repeat soaking and vacuuming out the water a few more times, but with much shorter soaks and then a little light scrubbing might help.
In even worse news, I'm seeing some fraying around the rim. Not entirely sure what I might do here just yet, but I'm open to advice.
Here are the "final, because I'm too tired to keep trying things for now" state of affairs pictures.
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@pechelman is throwing it in a washing machine out of the question?
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I think the bag looks great in its current condition, and Im surprised to see the leather trim has held up this well. I would leave it alone
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I'm not sure what you are unhappy about. Is it the brown colouration?
If so, that is a chemical reaction caused by sunlight. You can't make it black again, the discolouration is a change in chemical structure of the original dye. There will still be superblack parts where the sun don't shine.....
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Yup! I think it looks pretty rad myself. Looks like it’s got some nice wabi sabi happening.
Were you hoping to get it back to a point of even blackness?
In the easy chair with my boots on, melted whiskey in my hand. Could'na been asleep for more than three hours...time to go to work again...
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Thanks guys and @Giles especially. I wasn't sure if this was sun fading or not since it kinda looks like all the brown, what I thought was grime, is buried below the surface warp. But if you say that's what it is then that's all good and it's just part of the wabi sabi.
I'm thinking I'll reinforce the fraying edges with a little sashiko type stitching unless there are other ideas.
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@Mizmazzle before Giles confirmed the sun fading, I had thought it was dirt and oils and most of it would come out. Also I didn't think super black non fade would change so much. Mostly this is now a past issue of my expectations of it returning to more black, but now I know what's going on it's all good.
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@pechelman glad you feel good about it now! I'm about to give my 51 a post travels wash myself!
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This is what frustrates me with Iron Heart, it seems like many people own this brand to keep it in pristine condition in a museum. It was designed as biker and work wear that is meant to be used and worn and eventually beat to hell from life’s experiences. If everything this company makes is meant to make “sick “ fades, why would this shoulder bag be exempt from eventually changing?
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@pechelman I appreciate your post dude, I got one of these bags about 8 months ago and the top of mine is dirty from a couple trips, or so I thought??
Now I'm a bit curious if it's also sun bleached from leaving it out at the beach all day a few times. All part of the wabi sabi as you said, but you might have saved me going through the same repetitive process of trying to get the dirt off
