Removing Tree Pitch?

[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.