How to safely wash your Iron Hearts with a bar of Fels Naptha soap
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@Filthy25ozJunkie:
Also, I should add about the 25 oz xhs… I've found through experimentation over 4 pairs that if you soak them and they feel like sandpaper when they've dried, you've not gotten all the sizing out of the fabric. It isn't until about the 3rd soak do you get all the sizing out of the denim and it thickens up and gets a soft hand.
You can use this to your advantage though if you want very angular and high contrast honeycombs and creases. The sizing helps the staying power of the creases.
It's not necessary to soak. But read above.
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Mine have never touched water and I've owned them for a good while now.
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Added link to the store, and here: https://www.ironheart.co.uk/hardware/fels-naptha-bar.html
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97 cents at walmart in upstate NY. Woolite Dark was $10.47
[img alt="IMG_2453.JPG"]https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/ihf-images/9785/14199/19d50fd8-a6f5-41f4-a8ee-e05d3e784fe9.JPG -
Nice
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I gave these bad boys another wash today while I drank about a half a gallon of milk and ate a whole row of Mega Stuft Oreo cookies. It seems I'm able to get about 3-4 months of every day wear of a pair before I want to wash them. These were really dirty so I did 2 washes and 3 rinses. I gave the top block a thorough scrubbing on the inside with a whole bar as in between the washes.
I'm going to Saudi Arabia for a while so it will be nice these not being ripe in the heat. I've been really busy with work so I apologize for my absence from the forum.
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Hello,
I've been lurking in the forum for a few years now. It would be great if someone could answer these questions.
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How do you 'refresh' your denim? Some have suggested spraying diluted vodka while others have given mixed reviews about Mr. Black denim refresh.
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Do I need to worry about my health while handling Fels Naphtha? Or is a pair of rubber gloves enough?
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What about washing it with vinegar?
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Could I have asked this question in a better way or in a more relevant part of the forum?
Thanks a lot!
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You don't have to use Fels Naptha. You can use Dr. Bronners soap or woolite dark. You can soapy soak them with no agitation in cold water. Just do the soak and then the rinse steps.
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Do your soak with enough soap to make suds then do these steps:
12) Now spray the suds off the jeans with a hose on the inside and out. Stick the hose down in the pocket bags and spray them out too. Spray behind the leather tag to make sure there’s no soap in there either. If you don’t have a faucet just use your cup and rinse as best you can. We don’t need to get all the soap out at this point because we are going to do two rinses.
13) Now fill that tub up to 2/3 full again and agitate you jeans waistband, leather tag, and all giving a good rinse for a minute or two. And, drain this water out standing the jeans up again to get them above the rinse water but over the vessel. (So the floor won’t get wet).
14) Repeat step 13. This is important to do a good rinse and then rinse again, because we want to completely dilute the soap to a marginal residue. If you half-ass the rise you jeans will be stiff and itchy (and possibly give you a sweet bum/leg rash). Two rinses have always sufficed to remove all the soap. If you have hard water or something, you might have to rinse again, I guess.
Don’t use fabric softener or starch or anything like that. Just don’t do it. -
As far as a refresh goes, you can do alcohol. But that only goes so far.
I'd wear gloves handling any chemicals.
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I just used this soap for the first time today.
Had some white t shirts with stains. All I did was wet the stain, rub the bar of soap on the stain, then wash the shirts as normal.
Took the entire stain out, so I'm happy and impressed with this soap! I imagine it does a good number on denim.
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I grated most of my fels for the only pair of jeans I actually washed(not just soaked) in….pffff, 1.5-2 years ha. I really need to wash all most of my jeans.
Actually found this little article in hopes of making grating easier. All you need is a microwave and food grater. Not a fan of hand grating the bar.
http://www.themakeyourownzone.com/2015/06/can-you-microwave-fels-naphtha-soap.html
Going to pick up this cheap food grater from Wallyworld tomorrow sometime.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ninja-Express-Chopper-NJ100/16913480 -
Worth the $18 for the food processor. Much easier and no reason not to wash some jeans tomorrow.
Thanks @Filthy25ozJunkie for the info and turning me into feels naptha. Smells great too!
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Last time I just chopped up the bar and used the food chopper. This time I microwaved maybe 1/3 or 1/2 a bar, microwaved it for 1.5 min, then broke it up by hand and used the food chopper. Much better!
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Throw in washing machine
Drink wodka
Hangdry
Sleep
Hangover
Dry jeansI do this plus add soap and fabric softener, which so far I have not noticed any softening in the fabric.
