| Title: | Equine Notes Conference |
| Notice: | Topics List=4, Horses 4Sale/Wanted=150, Equip 4Sale/Wanted=151 |
| Moderator: | MTADMS::COBURN IO |
| Created: | Tue Feb 11 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2080 |
| Total number of notes: | 22383 |
I couldn't decide where to put this, so I started a new topic. If one
of the mods can think of a good spot for this, feel free...
You may not believe this but ordinary household ammonia is one of the
best cleaning products available to horsefolk.
I use a water & ammonia mixture to clean tack, boots spurs, etc.
Anything that gets gunked up with horse sweat and dandruff. The mix I
use is about 1 TB to an old Cool Whip(1 QT?) container full of water.
This wipes off the gunk with a lot less elbow grease than saddle soap
etc.
We also add ammonia to the laundry detergent when we do our horsey laundry
like saddles pads, rub rags and even winter blankets! We just put about
the same amount of ammonia as the amount of bleach we would put in our
white wash. Gets out the filth better than soap powder alone would do.
WARNING: *Never* use bleach and ammonia together. Such a mixture
creates a posoinous gas(ammonium chloride). In fact, don't even use
ammonia with most cleansers like Comet or Ajax. They have chlorine in
them just like laundry bleach does. I don't mean to insult anybody's
intelligence with that warning but even a knowledge of chemistry
wouldn't necessarily keep you from making that mistake.
The other thing ammonia is great at is removing bloodstains! I worked
in a dry cleaning plant at times while I was in school. The guy that
does the spot/stain removal keeps littlee bottles of chemicals on his work
shelf that look like ketchup bottles. One of them is filled with
ammonia because that's what they use to get out blood.
Just wet the stain with cold water, sprinkle a few drops of ammonia on
it and then rub the cloth together. You can also add a little Ivory
soap to that recipe. Then rinse with cold water. Voila, no more blood.
It doesn't work as well on bloody discharges as it does on straight
blood.
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1758.1 | CARTUN::MISTOVICH | depraved soul | Thu Jun 17 1993 11:15 | 13 | |
Your not insulting my intelligence, John. Thanks for the warning -- its
a good reminder not to mix cleansers and its helpful to know the
reasons why.
Thanks,
mary
ps worked in a dry cleaner, eh? got any useful tips for getting a
grease mark off of a brand new pastel silk blouse on its maiden run?
(sniff!) how about bird droppings from a parrot who pigged out on cherries,
then dropped a load on a white, cotton knit top while going for a ride
on my shoulder? (sniff, sniff! yesterday was a big spill day for some
reason!)
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| 1758.2 | Rubbing alcohol! | DECWET::JDADDAMIO | Seattle Rain Festival: 1/1-12/31 | Thu Jun 17 1993 14:16 | 32 |
Well, if you didn't change you car's oil and lube it with your best
clothes on, you wouldn't have these problems! ;-) Just teasing! That's
the kind of thing my Mom used to say when I messed up my new school
clothes or something...
There is a second miracle cleaner that every horse person
probably has around, rubbing alcohol! Alcohol is a natural solvent for
oils. It's great for removing pine pitch from horses coats(just wet a
rag and rub the pitch off).
BTW, I meant clear household ammonia before not the sudsy kind
Since both those stains are oily/greasy in nature, alcohol might work
but test it first to make sure it won't harm the fabric....So, if you
have some rubbing alcohol(not the drinking kind. Most of that has color
to it and besides it would be a waste! ;-)
Test by rubbing a little alcohol on an inside seam being careful not to
get it so wet that the alcohol spreads the general area around the
seam. Let it sit a couple minutes and see if the fabric will be
damaged by it. (Unlikely in this case because you have natural fabrics,
silk and cotton)
If the alcohol doesn't harm the fabric, wet the stain with rubbing
alcohol and rub it by folding the fabric into a V over the stain and
moving your hands back and forth. You can also add a little Ivory soap
or Woolite when you're doing this...
Then wash it as you normally would BEFORE the alcohol dries out. If the
alcohol dries, it will probably leave a ring where the stain was.
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| 1758.3 | XLIB::PAANANEN | Another Warp Speed Weekend | Thu Jun 17 1993 14:26 | 9 | |
Ahem...to get this topic back onto the subject of horses... I heard that "Dung-Away" and other manure-stain removers are really dry cleaning fluid...is this true? (When I had a white horse I had to order it by the gallon.) | |||||