A friend of mine uses a dishwasher to clean carparts, maybe for mail too?

Hell, in the army we used tubed shrimp cheese(?) to clean the reciever of or M109 A3GN 155mm Howitzer.
It worked, but seriously wondered how someone came up with it...
Probabbly picked up the wrong tube...

I AM SO STUPID..... :(

Earlier today a run away and bought some break cleaner for my mail....Stupid as I am I bought just the brand I was warned about (CRC brakleen). A bit of the grease came of but there is still a lot left.

Of to buy some moore i guess...

If its heavily coated, and you said it was, it might take a couple of cycles. Each time though, will strip more oil off. Make sure you give it time to fully evaporate before you pronounce it finished.

I have 2 GDFB shirts and I used degreaser and throw away towels to get it down to a light coat then I tossed the shirts in kitty litter to absorb the rest but the litter was then stuck to the shirt so I took a stiff brush and knocked off the litter. I then grilled them to a get the rest of the crap off the shirts.

There is no need for oil. If at one event you get some rust it will come off with wear at the next. I store my maille dry in a wool sack.

I think oiling shirts is crazy, it just makes a mess and I have never seen it work better at preventing rust than my dry method. Also graphite oils like WD 40 hold moisture in case you did not know, they are not rust preventers they are lubes for moving parts.

Agreed about the WD-40. I don't recommend it. Personally I use spray silicon, or ballistol.
The dry method may work where you are at James, but down here in the bayou, it don't cut it. My hauberk is nice and metallic looking, not orange. Most of the people who don't religiously take care of their maille like I do have orange maille...

[quote]I then grilled them to a get the rest of the crap off the shirts.

Quote:

Hi James, What exactly did you mean when you said 'grilling'? Start a grill burning and throw the maille on it? I just wanted to clarify because I have some maille to clean and I have everything else at home.

I use high heat on the propane grill Joe, not direct fire on the maille it leaves streaks.


Robin the key is to put the maille away dry; if it is wet when you put it in the wool sack it will stay wet. Wool does not let moister in but it also does not let it out ;). While VA is not as bad as the bayou we are still a swamp with humid summers, I get minor rust when I sweat into my arming coat and it is moist for long periods of time but hardly turns orange. Movement while wearing the shirt knocks the rust off. I also find I never get rust with a wool layer between me and the shirt like my 15th century doublet or 11th century tunics, it only happens with my linen arming cote for 14th century armor. Wool keeps the sweat for reaching the maille.

Guys, this is a no-brainer. Get a metal container large enough to hold your mail (i.e., bucket, steel mixing bowl, etc.), pour in enough Laquer Thinner to cover the mail. Let it sit for twenty minutes or so, until the laquer thinner has dossolved all of the grease from your mail. Pull the mail out and hold it over the container and let the excess laquer thinner drip off. Lay the mail on a towel or cloth until the laquer tinner has evaporated completely, and "voila!" you're done. I suggest you do this in a well ventalated space; the fumes can make you dizzy otherwise. Also, you'll have to pour the laquer thinner/dissolved grease back into it's original container and take it to whatever local authority you have for disposing of hazardous chemicals - usually the fire department will take it for you.

I've done this a dozen times, so I know it works.

Peter,

Will this method work mulitple times with the same thinner? I am assuming that eventually the thinner would get saturated with dissolved gunk but I'm wondering if I could de gunk multiple items without having to purchase new thinner each time?

Joe;

Yes. You can actually run the laquer thinner through a paper filter (i.e., a something akin to a coffee filter) and remove some of the dissolved grease. Without filtering it though, you can use it four or five times before it loses its ability to remove the grease.

Pig fat? Why didn't the Crusaders let the Muslems know about this. They wouldn't have come near them. :)

I wonder what the Saracens used, certainly not pig fat.

I'm inexperienced with chainmail, but I figure oil is oil. What about dish soap?