OT- Orange cleaner /degreaser

Rusty

Rusty

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2 summers back I ran across a straw ( sealed white ) Bailey cowboy hat at the thrift shop. Good shape but a bit dingey. Figured it would clean up, and was my size, and not about to pay $35+ for something I could get for $5.

To make it short, got it home and dishwashing detergent, windex, nothing got the old grime out. Mostly looked alright, so wore it that summer.

Then my wife got a tip on taking old grease off of wood kitchen cabinets that had been soaked in for years. This orange degreaser. Tried it and it worked. Took off stuff that had been there since before we moved in 20 years ago.

Pulled out the straw cowboy hat, put orange sruff on it, scrubbed a bit, rinsed off. Took the grime off top and the bottom. Hat no longer yellowish but bright white. Superglued red and black horsehair hatband on it and plan to wear
til time to pull out my felts.

( Tip 2 - Resistols and Baileys fit my head. Stetsons have ovals that are too long and narrow for me, give me headachse. )
 
What might be the brand name of this miracle "orange stuff"? I have an old dirty cowboy hat too. Along with a lot of other dirty things that are in need of miracles... :eek:
 
Originally posted by Rusty
( Tip 2 - Resistols and Baileys fit my head. Stetsons have ovals that are too long and narrow for me, give me headachse. )
Click to expand...

Or, "An Ode to Charlie Brown.":p ;)

My other brother Finn wears his felt's year around. The one I've seen him in most is black too!!!!:eek: I mentioned in passing one day that I would bet that high quality black fur felt hat was really hot!!!!
Finn then educated me that, "People think so, but in reality it wasn't as hot as one would think because the sweat created by wearing a winter hat in the summer, in Tucson at that, kept the head as cool as a good straw hat."
I believe him because he's my brother, but I'm still gonna opt out for a straw hat.;) :D
I really thought I had one that I had bought at a powwow a few summers back. I recall looking at them and really likeing one of them, but my sweet wife Barb tells me I didn't buy it.
That's so unlike me.:rolleyes: :grumpy:
 
What might be the brand name of this miracle "orange stuff"?

I've seen "orange" or "orange oil" based cleaners in several stores and brands. Check your local Wal-mart, etc. It's often sold as a degreaser. I've actually seen stuff like this sold in bike stores as a solution for cleaning and degreasing bicycle chains. It's supposed to be more earth-friendly than soaking in gasoline. If nothing else, the fumes aren't nasty to inhale or enourmously flammable like other solvents.

Warning, though: unlike traditional solvents, this stuff is WATER based, so be careful when cleaning things that might rust (can't think of an example on this board). Make sure you do something to get rid of any residual water and provide some sort of anti-rust coating.
 
Can't say. Got mine at a dollar store. But if you look around there's be some in the Grocery cleaning aisle. More of a degreaser than cleaner. Takes off the gunk from burned oil on the stove hood that windex won't touch.

Also for the woodchucks, if it can take gunk off of maple cabinets and leave them looking decent after 20 years... and seems to leave a little oil polish to dried out wood.

Should be good for wood khuk handles that have years of gunk built up too.

BTW, you are a 7 1/8 headband now too, aren't you Yvsa?
 
This stuff commonly comes in three varieties from what I can tell:

a)technical grade (about 85% pure) limonene extracted from citrus fruits. Often called citrus solvent. This is not readily dispersable or soluble in water. In this form, it can be used as an alternative to turpentine or petroleum spirits to thin wiping varnishes made from hardening oils. It is a fairly high boiling (175 deg C) hydrocarbon. It is sometimes marketed (somewhat diluted with petroleum distillates) to be used on its own as a wood treatment.

b)tech grade limonene blended with proprietary sufactants (5-10%) that enable the formation of a stable, milky-colored emulsion in water. (kinda like Pinesol, which is predominately a similar chemical from pines). Without the surfactants, it would quickly separate in to two layers. Often marketed as orange cleaner concentrate or similar.

c)pre-diluted (b). Depending upon marketing and advertising, can be nearly as expensive as (b). If it's sold with a spray top chances are it is pre-diluted.

Search for "limonene" in this forum for a previous thread.

I suspect that for water-containg cleaning, old fashioned Pinesol will pretty much do the same as (b) or (c). I think a lot of the orange cleaner stuff is marketing..."fresh-smelling", "new", "natural", blah, blah, versus Pinesol as "old-fashioned", "Granny's cleaner", blah, blah... The main constituents of orange cleaner and Pinesol are not very different.
 
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