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B-3 Shearling Cleaning Success

I recently acquired a B-3 made by Aero Leather Co. It is in very good condition. While the leather and zipper are in excellent condition, the shearling lining was very dirty. It seemed as if the owner(s) had left it under an idling B-17, a dark soot covering the trunk area of the jacket. If I wore a white shirt underneath the jacket, it became somewhat grey. So after inquiring and hunting around the net, the consensus seemed to be just use warm water and a clean cloth towel. Detergents and soaps are discouraged as they remove oils from the fleece.

I have tried a product that is especially made for cleaning shearling. It’s called Eucalan and the great thing about it is you apply it by hand or cloth and wipe off as much as you can with a dry towel. No rinsing required. It has lanolin in it so the shearling remains pliable. I could actually see where I missed spots the next day, it was that dramatic. I went through 7 hand towels getting the sooty residue off. It also removed the petroleum-graphite smell.

I am going to try it on a musty Links RAF jacket I have. It could almost be used for cannibalizing as it has rotten leather, incomplete zippers, broken stitching and really dry leather. But I can’t bring myself to this, so I’ll experiment by cleaning the fleece.

Hope this helps.

Mark
 

Falcon_52

Active Member
Thanks for posting this, Mark. This sounds like a good product. I'm glad your experiment turned out well. Maybe you can bring the Irvin back from the dead, too? :)

Best of luck.

Noel
 

Jaydee

New Member
Cool! And a bold move on your part. I would have probably thrown in the towel and sold it for fear of totally ruining it when trying to clean it. Sounds like a great product you found. As you probably know, Lanolin is Sheep grease from their hair.
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
Thanks. Exactly the information I was looking for to clean the rather grubby fleece of my recently aquired HLB B-3. I've just googled Eucalan and it's available in the UK.
 

Peter Graham

Well-Known Member
I got some of that stuff and I can report that it works very well. The white towel I was using finished up black. Maybe it's my imagination but it seems to have thickened up the fleece too. Highly recommended.
 

dmar836

Well-Known Member
Yeah, and I wanna see what happened to Mark's Irvin "experiment." Then again if an Irvin has gone bad it might've been the end. The US stuff doesn't surprise me anymore!
Dave
 

Tim P

Well-Known Member
Peter, it will have thickened up the fleece using the same principle as hair conditioner.
 
I tried the Eucalan wash on a B-7. As you know the B-7s were not treated like the B-3s. Left to their natural color they got discolored especially on the arms and front side. So I tried cleaning it inside and out. I am blown away by how clean I have gotten it. I think I would have had to pay at least $300 more for the jacket had it been as clean as it is now. There are a couple of minor discolorations that look like rust here and there, but overall the jacket’s appearance is much enhanced. After the jacket had completely dried, I applied Pecards under the arm pit to see what would happen, and it darkens the shearling too much. The jacket is still supple and I will affect some sowing repairs to it and add the missing buttons.

The Irvin is another story. It is hard enough trying to find DOT zippers let alone the correct ones for these jackets. I have cleaned the jacket and added a lightening zipper to replace the missing main zip. One of the arms had a bit of rot on the inside of the right arm just below the arm pit area. It had been poorly stored in a basement in a town that is known for sunshine and very low humidity-London. I have gotten the rest of the jacket cleaned and applied Pecards sparingly. I have been re-stitching the seams (much of the stitching was bad) with some thread from the 1940s.
Re-stitching by using the original holes in the seams requires much time, so I burn out quickly and do something else more stimulating like correct chemistry lab. reports or watch paint dry!! So except for the rot on the right forearm it is/will be a nice wearable jacket. I have worn it a few times and no one has noticed the eroded leather. And I believe I have stabilized the area so that no further rot or damage will occur.

So to the point, I have now used Eucalan on three entirely different sheep skins, inside and out, and have seen no adverse effects. It definitely helped the appearance of the B-7, did not change anything on the outside of the B-3 and helped the Irvin by making it more supple.

I am not the brightest shovel in the crayon box so I don’t know how to upload pictures.
 
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