RE: removal of oil and soot

[Joanne Hackett <jhackett@xxxxxxxxx>]

Generally speaking, the problem with smoke damaged textiles is that what
we think of as soot is really only about 50% particulate matter, the
rest of the soot is of an oily nature, especially so in the case of an
electrical fire where the products of the fire include plastics etc.
The approach to try when dealing with soot damaged objects is to start
with particulate soot removal and then to move to solvent cleaning of
the underlying 'oily' stains, and then on to wet-cleaning if necessary.
In removing particulate soot the vacuum is the first tool of choice.
Try to vacuum away as much of the loose soot as possible without
touching the textile surface.  (Wherever the soot has been touched it
tends to become more ingrained and bonded with the fabric below.)  Very
oily soot may not respond well to vacuuming, but it's the best place to
start.  I found that the soot damaged objects that I cleaned responded
well to 'dry-chem' sponges, these are the vulcanized rubber sponges sold
by many conservation supply houses and hardware stores.  Brands include
'Dirt Eraser' and 'Wonder Sponge'.  These sponges are used widely by
commercial fire salvage companies for general clean up.  Tentative
testing suggests that these sponges are harmless to sturdy textiles,
especially if any possible residue is vacuumed away after treatment.
    The underlying oily stains are probably best dealt with by
dry-cleaning by a trusted and experienced dry-cleaner.  I found that the
oily stains below the soot on smoke damaged cellulosic textiles
responded well to a series of solvents starting with relatively
non-polar solvents, moving to more polar solvents and finally
wet-cleaning.  (Historic textiles may not be able to stand this amount
of cleaning!)  The single Nylon object I treated did not respond well,
and given the similarities in the structure of silk and Nylon, I suspect
that silk will not respond well either.
    One thing is certain, time is of the essence.  The soot will be much
more difficult to remove the longer it is allowed to remain on the
textiles.

    Try the following articles:

    Spafford, S.  and F.  Graham.  1993.  Fire Recovery at the
Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History.  Part 1, Description of Events
and Analysis of Recovery.  And, Part 2, Post-Disaster Cleanup and Soot
Removal.  ICOM-CC postprints, Tenth Triennial Meeting, Washington DC.

    Gray Armstrong, J. D.  et al.  1981.  A Furnace Puff-back:  The
Unique Problem of Soot on Objects and Costumes.  AIC Preprints, Ninth
Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.

    Hackett, J.  1998.  Observations on Soot Removal from Textiles.  The
Textile Specialty Group Postprints Volume 8.  AIC Twenty-Sixth Annual
Meeting, Arlington, VA.

I hope this is helpful.
Joanne Hackett
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.