Removing Tree Pitch?

[Grizzled Ian]

I wonder if eucalyptus oil or tea-tree oil work as solvents for tree pitch. I have no idea if either of them stains woollen tartan fabric.

Now, I'm not expecting answers to my ponderings above, but I do thank Todd for the idea about testing offcuts. Who would have thought that about mayonnaise? And to think, they expect us to eat that stuff!

[Dughlas mor]

Mayonnaise, the classic cure for chewing gum in the hair. Great post, Todd.

[Todd Bradshaw]

If nothing else, it's nice to know that if you're at Burger King eating a Whopper and the bun lets go and dumps a mayo-slathered burger on your kilt, you can probably get the stain out. I also saw references for various types of cooking oil, WD40, spot removers, Goop handcleaner and other oil or solvent solutions, but hand sanitizer, Mayo, Goo Gone and Peanut butter were the most popular. If I can find a tree leaking some sap I'll try some on another sample and see if mayo will remove it. I wonder if my neighbor would mind me chopping a notch in the trunk of the 60' tall spruce in his front yard to get some sap out.......... I'll just tell him that I thought I saw some beavers in the neighborhood a couple nights ago (he grew up in Chicago and probably doesn't know that beavers don't eat spruce trees).

[Tenmiles]

GooGone may work to remove the pitch, though I'd be concerned about the fabric maintaining an unpleasant smell from it for a long time; it doesn't "wash out" that easily, and on a garment which is rarely ever laundered, it could be challenging.

[Benning Boy]

Pitch desolves easily in turpentine. I've used turpentine to remove pitch from regular clothes. I see no reason why it won't work on wool. Of course, the kilt would need to be aired awhile to get the odor out, perhaps dry cleaned. Dry cleaning involves the use of solvents, turpentine works as a solvent, so why should it be harmful to wool? I make simplified varnish every once in a while by dissolving pitch in turpentine. If you just use a little turpentine to remove the pitch, you might just be smearing varnish around. Use a lot, get it wet.

White gas should work as well. One way of cleaning high quality wool felt hats is to soak them in white gas, which dissolves the grime. If it won't hurt high-dollar hats, I doubt it would do any harm to wool tartan.

[Stitchwiz]

FYI - Mayo is made with oil and eggs so don't worry about eating it, if it's homemade. It's the other additives you need to worry about.

I don't know if it's my screen, but I think I can see an oily mark on both samples. They look darker than the centre sample. Personally, I'd use the alcohol and continue to blot as needed. I know that eventually all the pitch will come out. Then gently wash out any residue, rinse and let it dry.

Odour - Vinegar will help remove any tough odours once the stain is gone. Just set a dish with plain white vinegar near the kilt and it will take the odour away - and any other odours as well. This is my go to deodorizer.

I used to run the QM Stores for the Army Cadets. When we pulled all the tents out of the QM, the cadets would set them up in the parade hall and set a dish of vinegar inside each one for the evening. When the tents were rolled up at the end of the night, they smelled sweet. They smelled just fine when they were set up the following weekend out in our bush.
Tents can smell horrid after sitting for a year in storage - so vinegar is now kept in the QM Stores just for this purpose.

[Todd Bradshaw]

The Goo Gone odor really wasn't a problem after my rinse-blotting. The darkening is real, but as mentioned above, I don't think I rinsed enough and all I was doing is blotting with a wet paper towel with a drop or two of Dawn on it on the countertop. I was mostly trying to figure out whether the grease stain would be a spot with obvious borders. With enough work, I think you could get it all out.

A couple cautions though - I don't know much about how they dye wool, but it probably isn't wise to assume that all dyed wool is equally colorfast. I do know that they adjust the pH when they do it to aid in getting it to hold the color well, but I'm a sailmaker, not a chemist or textile scientist. I would certainly try any spot cleaning idea on a hidden area or tartan scrap before going for it on the front or back of my kilt.

When we spot-clean sails we also need to rinse the heck out of the area to remove any trace of the cleaner. Some of the cleaners used to remove various types of stains will change the pH of the fabric. We aren't likely to see any fabric strength change due to this, but it can make a serious change in the way the treated spot resists UV. Most kilts will never see as much UV as sails do, but even so, the idea that you might be creating areas on your kilt that could be more prone to fading or other UV problems down the road, should be motivation to do a really good job of rinsing out whatever substance you used on the problem spots.

[Riverkilt]

Cold bacon grease. Grew up in the Oregon woods. Used it all the time. Fast, easy.