Canvas strap bleaching. Help needed, please.

[davej[TK]]

Hi all, I've recently found a roll of the same vintage cargo strap that Wyatt had a little while ago.

Yay, you may well say... only problem is, it is olive drabish in colour.

 

 

I've tried bleach, and dye remover on it, and it just goes weird colours.

 

Left, original colour, middle, 20 minutes in bleach, right, an hour in dye remover.

 

Anyone know anything about this stuff, and any way to get it looking whiter?

I'm trying to get my hands on some white fabric dye, but have not been able to find any locally.

 

Thanks in advance,

Dave.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

I had the same belt material. I just used water and a small amount of bleach and soaked it for about 25 mins and that was enough to make it more of an off white cream color.

[davej[TK]]

Terry, what ratio do you think it may have been, and what sort of bleach was it?

I'm using sodium hypochlorite bleach.

The 2 little strips are my latest attempt, the one in the middle is water/bleach at 10/1 ratio, the one on the right is water/bleach at 20/1 ratio, both for 25 minutes.

 

They are both still wet, so a little darker than they will be, but nowhere near off white.

[troopermaster]

The quickest and most effective way to get your belt whiter than white is to simply paint it. I paint all my canvas belts with white emulsion after I have sewn them together. It gives you an instant white colour and also makes them more rigid.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

I used Clorox bleach and filled a rectangular plastic wash tub with some water (4 liters?) then just a splash, maybe a 1/4 cup of bleach. Then rinsed it when it was done. I wasn't trying to get it perfectly white.

 

I agree with Paul, it's probably easier if you paint it.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

I remember Wyatt (TK 4205 who did similar belts as you noted) also commenting to me offline that trying to get these white was a real PITA, and in the end it would probably be simpler to just paint. IOW, same advice as TM.

[TK4205]

I tried the same with the cargo strap that found. Though it was white enough, I wanted a bright white belt to match the rest of the armor. I tried bleach, fabric whitener and paint. The only thing that made it bright white was the paint.

 

Good luck with your find:)

[davej[TK]]

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies

I dared enter the hallowed domain of a fabric shop today. The ladies looked pityingly at me, and informed me that the pink/red colouration comes from a nylon/bleach chemical reaction. Seems that my strap has some nylon in it, and the red comes from the chlorine destroying the nylon.

Also went to a pharmacy, and spoke to the gentleman behind the counter. Upon telling him what I was doing, he got a nerdish gleam in his eye, and said if I dropped a bit off to him, he would try every chemical he had on it and see if any worked.

I have some awesome fabric paint, and I've given that a go. The khaki colour really likes to bleed through, so it is taking 3 coats to cover it, by which time all the detail of the fabric is hidden.

More tests to follow.

[TK-J]

Have you tried the Waproo shoe spray paint Dave? Same trick as with the boots - silver coat first, then white.

[davej[TK]]

Thanks, J

I've been experimenting..

I'm using Tautflex, which is rubberised fabric paint. Found that they make a canvas undercoat, which brings it down to 2 coats. It is also tintable, which means that I can make it an off white colour, rather than stark white.