Thread: 100% Flax linen fire hose

It is pilling. There are pilling shavers, sold for sweaters that will cut the pill balls off. But as said, it may not be flax or needs to be washed and well rinsed and stretched/rolled. Or was washed with fabric softner.

Soaking, Washing and proper rinsing of flax fire hose will tighten up the fibers and loosen the weave.

"Or was washed with fabric softner". It is 100% flax, I saw the roll it came off bearing the words, 100% flax linen. But, I guess the downy should have been left out...

But She sure does smell Nice,Ty

Try soaking in just a bit of Borax, ½ cup in 5 gallons of cold water, soak for a day, scrub with a stiff brush, then soak for a day in 5 gallons of cold water and cup of white vinegar. Allow to dry hanging for a few hours and while damp but, not hard, roll on a hanging rolling pin or around the corner of a table or counter top edge to loosen the weave. If you roll wet while hard, you can break the fibers. A wet firehose is rock hard.

Keep repeating the cycle until the rinse water is clear, even then I would probably do at least, 2-3 cycles to remove as much softener as possible.

Never tried to remove softener, but soaking works well to loosen the fibers of vintage linen and fire hose to get deep dirt/dust out.

When I washed my firehose, I saw in the fibers little brown bits of husk, that washed out in the wash and rinse water, there are no longer any husk in the fibers. Also, I was really impressed in the amount of soap that vinegar removed from the fibers. A tip from my bride, she uses it for our linen, also keep your washing machine clean.

Also do use the Fray-Check a liquid glue on the ends to prevent fraying.

I have a couple of extras I will start your new process with and use this softened one for practice, target practice maybe...

If there is a fire fighting supply store in your area they may have old unlined fire hose that was taken out of an old building. The laws & rules have changed in many areas & they are not allowed to have hose stations on the floors. The liability of having an untrained person try to fight a fire & being hurt or killed has led to the demise of these kind of hose stations. So keep your nose to the ground, you never know what you might find!

Dave"Slawman"Huffman

For cleaning the linen, my gramma swore by Fels Naptha soap. Its still made today, but has no Naptha in it so I dont know if its still any good for linen. i DO have 4 bars of vintage Naptha soap dating back to the 50s-early 60s and they do work exceedingly well on my linen strops. Never any pilling. I also take a hot iron to them when I am done to give it that smooth flat finish they had when I first got them.

Many soaps have a variety of additives, scents and softeners. You want a soap without all that stuff, just soap.

Dollar store Cold water wash or Wool lite, or Borax work well and surprisingly you don’t need much. Rinsing is key.

When your rinse water is crystal clear, the strop is clean. Rolling will loosen the weave to get the dirt out and make the linen soft and flexible. A good linen strop should be, as soft as an old cotton sock.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Many soaps have a variety of additives, scents and softeners. You want a soap without all that stuff, just soap.

Dollar store Cold water wash or Wool lite, or Borax work well and surprisingly you don’t need much. Rinsing is key.

When your rinse water is crystal clear, the strop is clean. Rolling will loosen the weave to get the dirt out and make the linen soft and flexible. A good linen strop should be, as soft as an old cotton sock.

Most supermarkets carry a line of soaps made for folks with water softeners. They are usually very pure soaps with few or no additives. Most modern detergent soap contain a legion of chemicals so they work well in all types of water.

I use my tallow based shaving soap to clean linen strops

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