removal of soot and smoke odor

[tanja kimmel <tanjakimmel@xxxxxx>]

As a student of the University of Applied Sciences Cologne (conservation and
restoration of textiles and leathern objects) I have just started to work on
my thesis.
This final paper will be about ecclesiastical textiles - mainly chasubles -,
which have been in use for many years in a small church here in town. I want
to work out a restoration concept for the historical garments, which are
partially from the medieval times. The great problem in this particular stock
of chasubles is the fact, that there are fire damages dating from the 1970th
and 1980th. After the last big fire the clerical vestments were hang up in a
seperate room. Large parts of the textiles are still covered with soot, the
smell is terrible and so far nobody has cleaned them.

As I was not yet confronted with the problem of cleaning fire-damaged
textiles, I first did a research to get to know more about possible methods of
treatment. Unfortunatelly there is no literature in German existing. But luckily
I found some advice on Conservation Online and numerous articles about soot
removal. So far the proceeding seems to be the same: I first have to vacuum
the textiles and then to dry clean them with vulcanized sponges in order to
get rid of the particulate soot. After I have removed as much of the
particulate soot as I can, solvent or wet cleaning is recommended in order to remove
the oily stains in particular or to take the pieces to a dry-cleaner.

But I can't take the pieces to a dry-cleaner: the ecclesiastical chasubles
are mainly from the middle ages, made out of silk and decorated with precious
gold and silver embroidery. Therefor I would like to know what kind of
solvent the dry-cleaner uses for the removal of soot and if someone could recommend
a solvent working best with silk so I could try on a suction table?

To get rid of the awfull smell, activated charcoal is recommended. Does
anybody know if it is to use as powder, granulate, paper or fleece and how the
application works in detail? I think I will need a fan to circulate somehow the
air.

Beside the soot damage there are some textiles which had really burnt. Is
there a possibility to secure the burnt areas after cleaning?

I really would appreciate if someone could help me in this matter. Many
thanks for your kind assistance!!!

Best regards,
Tanja Kimmel
Rathenauplatz 23
50674 Köln
Germany
E-Mail: tanjakimmel@xxxxxx

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