Good morning, MuseumLers - My first thoughts on these "recommendations" 
would not be appropriate to report in this forum. First off, the OxyClean 
products are meant for the consumer market and not the 
archival/museum/preservation market (meaning that there are all sorts of 
unwanted additives in the formulations and that the formulations change 
without notice). Next, which OxyClean product is being recommended as there 
are at least 9 being marketed for use in the laundry and others for 
non-laundry use. Most of the OxyClean products are based on a hydrogen 
peroxide bleach. Some formulations also have detergents and optical 
brighteners (not appropriate for archival/museum) . Even on the container, 
it states not to use OxyClean on wool, wool blends, silk, silk blends, or 
on fabrics labeled dry clean only. And that the OxyClean works best in warm 
to hot water. So the answer in one word to the question "Is OxyClean safe 
for historic textiles": No.

There was no mention of checking for water/wash fastness, no mention of 
water quality, no mention of water quantity, no mention of the current 
physical condition of the quilt, no mention of the fibre content of all the 
components of the quilt, no mention of the size of the quilt compared to 
the size of the washing machine, no mention of the condition of the washing 
machine (used for everyday washing of household using what kind of 
quantities of detergent and fabric softeners), no mention of getting the 
spun-out quilt out of the machine, no mention of how to lay the quilt out 
safely to dry, etc., etc.

Now getting off her soapbox (that does not contain optical brighteners, 
dyes, nor perfumes) now.

Please feel free to contact me off-list for any further clarifications.
Regards,  
Meg  
.   _    _    _   _   _  ______     
 Margaret E. Geiss-Mooney      
Textile/Costume Conservator &      
Collections Management Consultant      
Professional Associate - AIC     
707-763-8694     
[log in to unmask]  

...about cleaning an antique quilt. We talked about surface cleaning and 
hand cleaning with our old standby Orvus. But she had apparently talked 
with an antique quilt "expert" (non-museum) about cleaning it earlier and 
that person told her the following: Fill up her washer with cold water and 
add Oxyclean. Soak the quilt without aggitation and then spin the water 
out. Have to be honest. I cringed. But my question to you is....is Oxyclean 
safe for historic textiles? Maybe I need to update my conservation 
knowledge, but I haven't heard anything about using it. Any thoughts?

 

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