I have a jacket made of a cotton canvas type cloth that I want to waterproof.I want it to be rain gear. How did the fisherman,years ago, waterproof clothing.
I’ve tried the spray on stuff and it just doesn’t do the job.
I’ve concidered hot wax but I don’t know what proportions paraffene to beeswax.
I’ve concidered oil but will mink oil do the trick?
You probably don’t want to try this at home. The traditional way of creating “oilskins” for fishermen involved literally painting heavy canvas fabric with linseed oil. This was smelly, sticky, incredibly heavy, and never really dried (it remained sticky), not like a modern vinyl “oilskin”.
How waterproof do you need it to be, that the spray-on silicone stuff doesn’t work? Are you talking “drenched to the skin by buckets of water thrown by off-camera stagehands”? If so, you ought to just go buy some regular oilskins. Or a regular raincoat.
I would think that wax would just fracture and fall off. I do know that you have to be cautious when applying oils to cotton fabric, because some oils (like neatsfoot) will rot the material. Never heard of mink oil being used to waterproof things.
Buy an umbrella?
the spray-on stuff has worked for me in the past but you can’t wash the item or you have to spray again
I’m talking about wearing it while doing chores in the rain.
The spray on stuff doesn’t work. I’M just as wet as when I didn’t use anything.
They sell an expensive riding trenchcoat like thing supposed to be australian that is oiled.What do they use?
My wife says they’re called dusters.
I am not sure what you are trying to do or invent. I have used a spray on both clothing and shoes and it worked fine and water would slide off and not soak in. But I still could not go swimming without getting wet.
have you tried asking in a store where they sell outdoor stuff? They sell plenty of waterproof clothing for wet weather and depending on the severity of the weather and the length of time you will be in it you will have to decide what you need.
At the bottom of the scale you have cheap plastic clothing you can get at Kmart and you can go up the scale all the way to fancy (and expensive) camping REI or nautical gear BOAT-US
It seems to me you are making this much more complicated than it is. You’re not the first person to deal with rain. A spray product can seal fabric but if the garment is the wrong shape (Tshirt) then you are not addressing the problem. Any cheap plastic garment is totally impermeable. The problem with that is that, if it is well enclosed, you are soon dripping in your own sweat so you need to let air in and out without letting water in. There is Gore-tex and other fabrics which purport to work miracles in this department.
Being around sailors I have heard many discussions about the best techniques to stay reasonably dry in bad weather when sailing offshore (pretty much impossible) but … in your yard? get those cheap plastic coveralls they sell at Kmart for $1 or ask someone to hold an umbrella or go indoors until it stops raining… This does not sound too complicated to me… maybe I am missing something…
OK sailor I will make this very simple for you. I do not want one of those cheap K Mart raincoats. I want to waterproof the coat I have. Perhaps you do not think I have done my hamowork here.I have read a lot about waterproofing cloth. For instance beeswax is a good waterproofer but it gets sticky. Probably menhaden fish oil was used by the whalers of old but that is what I do not know. Soy bean oil mixed with kerosene and brushed on fabric will waterproof it. But I don’t think it was used on clothing. Probably Tarps tents awnings etc.
What did the cowboys use? what did the Gaucho’s use. What did chris columbus use?
I am telling you the spray on silicone when used according to directions does not work.I don’t care if it worked for you. You were probably not working in it. I know all about sweat and can adjust to that. I am not working in my yard.
Also you are the first person to tell me that that spray stuff keeps your feet dry. I used a half a can of the stuff on my last pair of boots and I still got wet. But I was working not watching a ball game. By the way mink oil is a popular shoe preservetive waterproofer.
If you have a particular brand of spray that will work on working mans boots I’m sure the guys at the concrete plant would like to try it.Most guys go through a pair of boots a year.
justwannano, I have no idea what people used 100 or 400 years ago but I cannot see why you would want to do that as there has to be something better today. Probably they used some oil that was smelly and tacky.
Probably your dry cleaner’s might have an answer for you.
A few years ago I asked and bought some product that worked pretty well. I would have sworn it was Scotchgard but I have looked it up and it seems it is for something else entirely so either my memory is really as bad as i suspect or indeed it was scotchgard and I was using it for something it was not intended for. I am sorry I cannot be more helpful
I have an very high quality, English floor length type raincoat that has classic duster look (but with a little Sherlock Holmes thrown in) and uses oiled fabric. It’s neat and I can understand your desire to use this approach with your coat.
With all due respect, however, unless you know precisely how your particular canvas cloth (there are many weights and weave densities of canvas) will react with an oil-silicon-wax or other waterproofing compound your quest is likely to leave you with a stinky, unusuable and more or less ruined canvas coat. What you are contemplating is interesting but without more information re the interaction of your specific cloth with these (or whatever) waterproofing compounds you are on a fool’s errand.
Just a note:
There was some mention above of Scotchguard (fabric protector), but I think I read recently that the company is phasing it out.
Re: the waterproofing, perhaps you can try contacting raincoat or umbrella manufacturers by google-searching for their sites & seeing if there’s any “contact-us” links. Maybe they can steer you right. So much for my 2-cents.
I’ve tried 4 or 5 different spray on waterproofers and none have done the job. I followed the directions each time and they still soaked clear through. I even asked a tent and awning rental place and he told me what they used but said “you don’t want that next to your skin.”
The spray-on silicone waterproofers are meant to be “water repellent”, not “waterproof”. It says so right on the can. This means in actual practice that a moderate rainfall will be shed, but not if you stand out in it for hours and hours. It will eventually soak in.
You’re doing chores in the rain? Whether those spray-on things will work depends on how hard it’s raining. They’re only designed to repel water some.
You ought to check out the kind of store that sells serious hunter/fisherman clothing, I don’t mean the upscale L.L.Bean stuff, but not K-Mart either. Here in Illinois we have two chains, one is called Farm & Fleet, the other is Rural King. They sell serious farm supplies, also the kind of coat you’re thinking of, I think.
The oil that whalers used was linseed oil. This is an oil extracted from flax seed. Nowadays it’s mostly used in very tiny quantities by serious oil painters (art stuff), but in times past it was the oil of choice for compounding all oil-based paints, in a pre-petroleum era. It does what we call “oxidize”, which means it eventually dries and forms a tough skin, at least when it’s combined with other ingredients like varnish and it’s on wood. But when you paint plain linseed oil on cloth to make oilskins, it remains tacky.
AFAIK, the cowboy “Austrailian” dusters are not particularly waterproof. If a cowboy was going to be out in the rain, he put on a “slicker”, which was–an oilskin.
Thanks DDG
I’ve done a lot of research today and have found a couple of interesting things.
Duck Back makes a reproofing cream mostly for leaky seams but it is ten bucks a pop.
MilAir makes a Superwax Don’t know much about it yet.
One Mfgr uses paraffin and mineral oil
Another uses mineral oil lanolin vitamin E and wax.
I must have looked at 300 sites.Yawn
Mackintosh coats are rubber coated.
Were I you, I’d just start wearing a plastic poncho over whatever coat won’t allow itself to be waterproofed. Hey presto, your hands are free to work and the water just rolls off you.
I have a waxed coat made by a company called Barbour, who are well known for them in the UK. It is a heavy Egyptian cotton which is covered in a wax which they supply themselves. This wax wears off after a while and you are advised to rewax every year or so, depening on how heavily you use your coat. I’ve had mine for 10 years now and it still works a treat. What I’m trying to say is that, I don’t know what exactly the wax is made of, but Barbour will sell you tins of their stuff which you can heat and apply to your coat with a sponge, and it works very well.
Hey great Moonshine
I’ll give them a try.
Thanks
I don’t know if you’re still looking but I found this product called Revivex here
http://www.gore.com/store/revivex/index.html
it seems to be what you were looking for
Just, have you checked with a dry cleaner?
Seems like something they might be able to do for a couple bucks.
How about an Army-Navy surplus store? One that sells camping stuff, too? Or a camping goods store? They might have something you could use on it.
Thanks sailor
I haven’t done anything with the coat yet
I like the idea of using heat to set the product.