How do you clean leather gloves and mittens?

[Noodler]

There are great unholy gobs of olive oil 'Castile' soaps on Etsy.

The soap doesn't matter as much as the tanning. We've known one basic fact since World War 1: veg tan leather falls apart when water is allowed to soak in. Which is why we invented chrome tanning.

Have you actually tried my carpet/upholstery foam on a nitrile glove trick? Foams -> minimal wetting, maximal defunk.

Muc-Off took the carpet foam idea and ran with it to make Foam Fresh. Carpet foam for sports.

Foam Fresh - 400ml

Stay fresh out there!

us.muc-off.com

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But they f*cked the fragrance part: way, way way stronger than it needs to be, headache inducing levels.

Mind providing more detail on the carpet foam process? I'm intrigued...

 

[cantunamunch]

Mind providing more detail on the carpet foam process? I'm intrigued...

Take a disposable medical glove.
Put it on your hand.
Spray carpet foam on the gloved hand.
Put foamed hand into glove to be cleaned.

Wriggle.

 

[Noodler]

Take a disposable medical glove.
Put it on your hand.
Spray carpet foam on the gloved hand.
Put foamed hand into glove to be cleaned.

Wriggle.

Brilliant!

 

[Uncle-A]

Take a disposable medical glove.
Put it on your hand.
Spray carpet foam on the gloved hand.
Put foamed hand into glove to be cleaned.

Wriggle.

That is a neat idea, thanks for sharing.

 

[Tony S]

Take a disposable medical glove.
Put it on your hand.
Spray carpet foam on the gloved hand.
Put foamed hand into glove to be cleaned.

Wriggle.

Not processing. There is caca of various sorts in the lining / insulation of the glove. Body oils, salts, hot chocolate remains, whatever. It needs to be cleaned out, not just dissolved and distributed more evenly inside the glove. That's why conventional procedures for cleaning most anything involve enough solvent - e.g., soapy water followed by plain water - to actually carry away the contaminants. How does wiggling a bit of foam that stays inside the glove do that?

 

[James]

This was really a repurposed leather glove cleaner:

 

[cantunamunch]

Not processing. There is caca of various sorts in the lining / insulation of the glove. Body oils, salts, hot chocolate remains, whatever. It needs to be cleaned out, not just dissolved and distributed more evenly inside the glove.

Which is it? Dissolved or distributed more evenly? The whole point of these detergents is to preferentially bond the caca to themselves rather than the textile - and retain that bond even as the water dries.

. How does wiggling a bit of foam that stays inside the glove do that?

Feel free to shake the glove out with the dried foam and captured caca bits. Or if you have a vacuum with a wand, that works too.

 

[Tony S]

Which is it? Dissolved or distributed more evenly? The whole point of these detergents is to preferentially bond the caca to themselves rather than the textile - and retain that bond even as the water dries.

Okay, then what? The caca is still in the glove, right?

Imagine you have a really dirty sweater. You put it in a (clean) washbasin with a cup or two of soapy water and knead it. Now the dirt is dissolved in the soapy water. So far, so good. Next, pull the plug on the basin and let what little of the water that was not absorbed by the sweater drain. Now lay the sweater out to dry. Once it's dry, all that dirt that was in the water is back in the sweater again, only maybe distributed more uniformly.

The key thing here is the very small amount of soapy water and the complete lack of rinsing. That's what you're doing when you put a bit of foam in a glove and just stir it around. Isn't it? The caca didn't go anywhere. What am I missing?

 

[cantunamunch]

Okay, then what? The caca is still in the glove, right?

I think you've never used carpet cleaner on actual rugs. The foam dries and you vacuum it.

The caca is bonded to the loose grit left by the foam - as opposed to bonded to the textile.

With the glove you can shake it out.

Imagine you have a really dirty sweater. You put it in a (clean) washbasin with a cup or two of soapy water and knead it. Now the dirt is dissolved in the soapy water. So far, so good. Next, pull the plug on the basin and let what little of the water that was not absorbed by the sweater drain. Now lay the sweater out to dry. Once it's dry, all that dirt that was in the water is back in the sweater again, only maybe distributed more uniformly.

The rinsing is using solvent to accomplish a mechanical task.

The idea is to use non-water mechanical means, vacuum or shake-out, instead of water solvent, to accomplish the mechanical task. You do that by separating the caca from the fiber and adding dry mass/volume to the caca so your mechanical means are more effective. Plain soap doesn't do that.

 

[James]

So, we need testube brushes for the fingers and a vacuum after the foam glove cleaning?

 

[cantunamunch]

So, we need testube brushes for the fingers and a vacuum after the foam glove cleaning?

Or, you know, just hold by the fingers and shake.
Or, you know, just use one of the way overpowered DIY drying rigs over in that thread to blow the filth out.
I'm sure we can also devise some Tim Allen-grade shop air contraption to do it with More Power.

Hey, maybe we can borrow your antique laser idea except just liquefy the CO2 and use *that* as a dry cleaner? I mean it works on bone implants...

 

[Tony S]

I think you've never used carpet cleaner on actual rugs. The foam dries and you vacuum it.

Ah. True. (Which, for those of you ready to decide that I'm a total loss, domestically speaking, does not mean that I have never cleaned a carpet stain.) Got it. Thanks.

 

[DebbieSue]

What if you did the shaking and then did a second round with fresh medical glove and fresh foam and then shake again? I think this might be equivalent to "rinsing" the residual caca bits.
We grown-ups really like saying caca.

 

[Joby Graham]

No caca in my gloves, just schmutz. Does carpet cleaner work on that?

 

[James]

This is why you get kids nylon gloves that go in the wash.

 

[BLiP]

This is why I appreciate the removable liners in my Hestras (also helps to dry faster). Back when I wore Reusch regularly, they never got washed. They were probably pretty gross, but still keep my hands warm and protected.