[Jacob-list] cleaning dirty fleece

[Tom and Judy Riddolls]

hello all,
i have to comment on the acid comment.  This is simply not the case.  
Vinegar or even full strength acetic acid which will eat through your skin 
will not harm cellulose.  Yes, sulphuric acid will - but we are talking 
orders of magnitude differences in strength.  You could soak a piece of 
grass for a month in vinegar and nothing would happen.  I guess this may 
come across as harsh, not at all.  I am a material scientist and an educator 
and too often I come across common sense that falls a bit short of the mark, 
so I had to speak up.  What may be happening is the vinegar is relaxing the 
proteins in the cuticle of the wool, releasing their grip on the bits.

Tom at grey wethers farm

>From: Shawn Hoefer <shawnhoefer at yahoo.com>
>To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
>Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] cleaning dirty fleece
>Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 16:48:48 -0800 (PST)
>
>VM is cellulose. Vinegar is an acid. Acids will eat cellulose. In 
>commercial processing, they use
>sulfuric acids and then carbonize the wool in low temp ovens to turn the 
>partially eaten VM to
>ash.
>
>--- Linda <patchworkfibers at alltel.net> wrote:
>
> > I use vinegar in the rinse to help rinse out the soap, but haven't heard 
>that it will 'eat' some
> > of the vm.  Can you elaborate?  Sounds interesting.
> >
> > Linda
> >  
> > www.patchworkfibers.com
> > Registered Jacob Sheep, Angora Rabbits, Handspun Yarn
> >
> > On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 15:54:18 -0800 (PST), Shawn Hoefer wrote:
> > Oh,
> > > and a diluted vinegar rinse after washing but followed by a second
> > > plain rinse can sometimes help as it will 'eat' some of the VM.
> >
>
>
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