Hudson Bay Point Blankets

oxalic acid is the active ingredient in navy gel. It takes out rust stains best. Something a bit gentler is a peroxide solution and let the stain just sit ands you keep daubimg it with peroxide.
Ammonia and salt have also worked in wools but after any treatment, take the entire blanket, wsh it in woolite and then you can full it to restore its "memory" (Fulling is a felting -like process that is done after waving and washing t6o make a blanket soft)

Love the account of the whole wool process, farmerman, thanks.

We have one of these too, we love it. Didn't realize that it was potentially worth that much. Parents-in-law had it in their garage for years without using it and planned to get rid of it in a garage purge -- we asked for it and have been using it since. It's our summer blanket (sheet + that) and then we use a down comforter in the winter. It's in pretty good shape, but not incredibly soft -- I definitely have to keep a sheet between it and my skin in the summer or it bothers me.

Also a four point (four black lines).

Doesn't seem to be Hudson Bay though, I guess that makes a difference, value-wise. Label says "Early's Witney Point Blanket/ Made in England of pure wool."

Seems to make a difference, yeah. Found a similar one on eBay for $12. Ah well.

Good luck with the stain, Joeblow...

Hey, what does the sign say dj? Sounds like your family has a neat bit of history.

Hey Green Witch. I'm not sure it'd be worth it, but maybe. I'll probably try something on my own at some point, BUT I don't want to wreck it (it may already be impossible to remedy...I don't know). I'll keep that idea on the back burner. It's a good one.

it's a billboard for the huron sands motel and the hudson bay trading post in providence bay on the manitoulin island

about ten years ago none of the trees in front of the sign were there

Farmerman and Rog, I found some information on oxalic acid. It’s a mordant for wool. I had to look up mordant. The ammonia and salt looks promising but complicated (Green Witch’s idea is looking better all the time).

Soz! Poke around a bit more on yours. Whitney predates Hudson Bay I think I read and Early was the first to use the point system (I read quickly " check!). Some of those babies are old.

Hudson Bay changed their labels from “All Wool” to “100 % Wool” in 1950. They went bi-lingual in 1970. (That’s how I managed to estimate the age of mine).

I'm going to give it a go with with the ammonia. I looked up fulling and waving (that's basically shrinking and shaping right?) and while I'm a bit concerned I may not be able to get it exactly right again, the blanket's useless to me as it is. That settles it. These things were washed all the time back in the day.

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll add a postscript once I've done it (that likely won't be for several weeks).

(avoid the dry cleaner for stuff like this)

Too late!

Drycleaning was recommended on the Bay site, (which site? there's been so many!) But that doesn't surprise me.

It 's a done deal this time.

I agree with ehbeth. Dry cleaning can make the blanket stiff as a board and you want that least. (You really can live with a stain as long as its not something foul).
Id still go with a woolite wash and a gentle spin dry, dry the blanket on a large surface (Dont hang it out wet or its gonna stretch to ungodly lengths). After its just damp, then do some fulling. Ive got a web site that some folks put together on wool fabric handlinghttp://www.fuzzygalore.biz/articles/fulling.shtml


Fulling gives the texture of fuzziness for things like "boiled wool" jackets that include stuff like pea coats . My wife did a lot of felting in her early fabric days and was responsible for many patterns that have since gotten really popular, including the original "Judy Bags" and felted "Humphrey hats " for women . Theres a fine line tween fulling and felting. The link will talk about it but if you are too heavy with the blanket, you can turn it into a thing that will resemple a piece of plywood. Then you have to go through all kinds of **** to unfelt it. Thats why Dry cleaning can be too rough if you dont give extreme instructions to the folks . (Remember, a dry cleaning machine is just a big tumbler that uses chemicals like Perchlorethylene rather than water and gentle soap)

It's already been dry cleaned. It WAS softer before I took it in, but looks pretty good otherwise. I'd say I got lucky I guess, except the whole reason I took it in is because it has that big fat unlucky stain. It's unslightly and I really won't use it as it. I thought/think it might be a really cool blanket for the cottage.

I very much appreciate the link. I'll check it out now.



Edited to add stuff.

Does it have a nastysmell? Then pack it in a trunk with lots of lavendar flower buds , itll draw out the nasties.


You can soften it up by careful brushing while its laying on a tack surface. A rubber carpet mat works great. Just brush in one direction and not too rough. Its something for kids to do .
If you have a porch on your cottage, these blankets look great hanging out airing.

I think I'm going to try it all

Joe, Darlin', you say Whitney predates HBC. That must mean that they were making such blankets before HBC. Are you aware of when HBC started? The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay was chartered by King Charles II in May, 1670. If you got down to the Bay across from the Eaton Centre, they have it engraved above the cornerstone.

I know nothing of this Whitney. If they are older than 1670, perhaps HBC purchased blankets from them for trade purposes.

Yikes! Lordluvaduck I don't know! I thought I read that but it was a real quick looksee somewhere in my travels. I see I didn't add a comma up there which would have made that clearer. I really just meant to convey that her blanket could be a keeper for reasons other than utility and wanted to encourage her to research it.

Yesterday I put several inches of hot water into the bathtub and added a goodly amount of ammonia. Because the wool really doesn’t wick and the blanket is clean, I placed only the bottom fifth of the blanket into the solution and soaked for about 18 hours. That was a gamble but I hoped that if I was successful with the stain, I could limit the possible effects of felting to a smaller area. Although rubbing or agitating the wool in any way is cautioned against, I checked it periodically and did ‘press’ the afflicted spots.

Using clean water for rinsing, I filled the tub repeatedly until I thought I had any residue out. Although it looked a little lighter, I wasn’t happy, so as a final act of fukc you, I saturated the area with sprayNwash. If anybody ever reads this far for tips, please don’t think I’m recommending it. After 20 minutes or so, I rinsed again, several times. I then filled the washer and gently hand rinsed it in the machine, taking it out before spinning it empty and then, with the whole blanket, repeated the process. Twice.

It’s been air drying for about the last four hours. The stain is still there, but appears lighter to my eye. I guess I won’t really know how well it worked until it’s completely dry (that’ll take days maybe).

Thanks all.

Soz and Set, a point of interest perhaps:



http://www.earlysofwitney.com/history/index.html

That's interesting, although somewhat misleading. Blenheim Palace was constructed on royal land at the public expense for John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, in honor of his contributions to the War of the Spanish Succession. However, the battle of Blenheim was was fought in 1704; Blenheim Palace was still not completed at the time of the Duke's death, but it is certain that it did not exist when Witney was established, it was only started building more than 35 years later.

Winston Churchill was indeed born at Blenheim Palace--the father of John Churchill was Winston Churchill (John Churchill was born in 1650). He died without male heir, so that the title passed to his grandson, the child of his daughter and Lord Spencer. The Churchill with whom we are familiar was Winston Spencer Churchill.

But it is more interesting, because John Churchill, long before he was the Duke of Marlborough, was a close friend of King Charles II (his father had been a royalist and supporter of Charles I in the civil wars, for which he and his children suffered). John Churchill was one of the original "Gentleman Adventurers trading into Hudson's Bay." It helped to make the Churchill family comfortably wealthy.

It is entirely possible that HBC purchased from Witney the blankets they traded, or that they had Witney manufacture them on contract.