I have a Union Jack. It's around 4m x 8m or thereabouts. It's not a tourist or cheap flag, it's heavy and thick cloth of some description - types of cloth not being something I know anything about, but one would assume some type of cotton.
Sadly, it has at some point in it's life been unwisely washed and the white bits are now distinctly pink.
I know which WWII ship it is supposedly from, though I have my doubts since one wouldn't have thought she'd have a flag with colours that ran!
Anybody got any bright ideas?
It is unusable as it is and has no value other than as a working flag, so ideas with some element of risk are acceptable as long as there's at least some chance that they might work.
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Hang on to it as an investment. When the Union breaks up the memorabilia market will flourish!
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Probably still better not pink.
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...save it up for the 2021 Santiago Gay Pride march.....?
;-)
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If U wuz down wiv de kidz like wot I is, u'd kno issa rainbo flag.
No pink.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 8 Oct 20 at 22:22
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Bright sunlight is surprisingly good at whitening stuff; have you tried just leaving it out in the sun? Though you run the risk of fading the red and blue that way, unless you mask it off somehow... perhaps wet the now pink bits with colour remover, or maybe even a mild bleach solution first? Caveat - I’ve never tried to wash a flag...
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Isn't there something about the union flag never being washed?
Pedant alert: IIRC the union flag is only ever called a union jack when being flown from a jackstaff, but I suppose that if you knew that, it wouldn't have been washed.................:>)
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>>IIRC the union flag is only ever called a union jack when being flown from a jackstaff
A ridiculous and modern obsession, frequently an affectation by the pompous. Present company entirely excluded.
In the 19th Century it was freely called either. So that's what I'm going with.
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>> >>IIRC the union flag is only ever called a union jack when being flown from
>> a jackstaff
>> A ridiculous and modern obsession, frequently an affectation by the pompous. Present company entirely excluded.
>> In the 19th Century it was freely called either. So that's what I'm going with.
Perhaps, in the 19th Century they couldn't of bothered about being correct? ;>)
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>> Perhaps, in the 19th Century they couldn't of bothered about being correct? ;>)
yes! get in there, nice one
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...couldn't have, surely? :-)
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>> ...couldn't have, surely? :-)
>>
....well, if we're going to be picky, maybe "couldn't be"......
;-)
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>> ...couldn't have, surely? :-)
Ooo no, Think you missed BT's magnificent thrust into FM's Achilles heel, the use of the colloquial "of". Ie couldn't of, shouldn't of, wouldn't of, must of.....
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 9 Oct 20 at 12:39
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>>Think you missed BT's magnificent thrust
It was both spectacular and entirely out of the blue. Credit where credit is due.
I shall bide my time.
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>> >>Think you missed BT's magnificent thrust
>> It was both spectacular and entirely out of the blue. Credit where credit is due.
>> I shall bide my time.
I think I'll keep my head below the parapet for a while.
To paraphrase Yamomoto (allegedly): "I think all I've done is to awaken a sleeping giant" and things didn't end up too well for him!
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>>Perhaps, in the 19th Century they couldn't of bothered about being correct? ;>)
Oh good shot! Swine.
It sets my teeth on edge.
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Search for "colour safe bleach" It comes in lots of brand names.
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>>Search for "colour safe bleach" It comes in lots of brand names.
I'll try but I live in a Third World basket case. Such obvious things are frequently unknown here.
Certainly they had nothing in the supermarket near my house. And the primitive being I spoke to could do little more than grunt in response to my query.
Last month trying to buy dishwasher cleaner, then simply trying to get someone to actual admit it existed, almost broke me.
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p.s.
If it is ""colour safe bleach", how will get get the pink out?
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If it’s colour safe why would it remove the colour pink?
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Missed your identical response
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Because the pink is not "colour fast" Ie its not dyed with a stabiliser, merely bled over from the red.
But thats just ruddy typical, you offer a solution and the pedants appear like beetles on dung. Stick with your pink bucking flag, I dont care.
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 8 Oct 20 at 23:38
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Lol Mr Z. I shall go to bed smiling after reading that.
My first 'proper' job was at Yorkshire Chemicals in Leeds, a company making dyeing products; I should remember something about colour fastness, fabrics and suitable bleaches but I don't.
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I looked it up on the Persil website, who say "shove it in water with Persil Bio overnight, that will lift dye that's leached into the white bits. Or buy a commercial remover".
PS if interested in a bit of Persil trivia:
www.adbrands.net/archive/uk/persil-uk-p.htm
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 9 Oct 20 at 07:13
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The material for pukka flags is wool bunting.
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I suppose if all else fails! ;-) - you could try going over the white bits with that plimsol whitening stuff that athlete's use (or we did when we had gym shoes!) ;-)
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I regularly have to use bleach and for cleaning white items. I use Milton. From £2 a go.
It will take a bit of care but using a cotton bud to apply the bleach and obviously avoid it migrating out of the white areas. When in doubt rinse, dry and start again :-)
Milton is alsogreat for removing tea stains in cups and muggs etc
Google results
Milton Sterilising Fluid can be bought from most local pharmacies or supermarkets. It is a form of diluted bleach and contains sodium hypochlorite 2%.
or
and much safer to use than bleach as it's non-toxic!
Beware of the web ???
One of my other go to household cleaners is peroxide for removing blood spots
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Just read op again. I hope some sort of baby bottle steriliser is available locally.
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>>It will take a bit of care but using a cotton bud to apply the bleach
As Captain Oates almost said, "I may be some time".
I am sure you're correct, but the naffin' thing is huge!
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>> >>It will take a bit of care but using a cotton bud to apply the bleach
>>
>> As Captain Oates almost said, "I may be some time".
>>
>> I am sure you're correct, but the naffin' thing is huge!
>>
Larger cotton buds are available :- )
www.youtube.com/watch?v=10QACvu9lKI
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Crankcase: "shove it in water with Persil Bio overnight"
PeterS "have you tried just leaving it out in the sun? "
I like both of these suggestions since they purport to achieve what I want and entail only a limited amount of effort.
However, I fear the sun bleaching has two flaws; The flag is huge and it'll take up so much room that no doubt the cats will walk on it and probably use it as a killing field and I fully expect that the flocks of parrots will crap hugely upon it.
So I'm off to get Bio soap powder and then will attempt to gum up the washing machine later. I hope it works out as easily as it sounds.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 9 Oct 20 at 15:08
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>> So I'm off to get Bio soap powder and then will attempt to gum up
>> the washing machine later. I hope it works out as easily as it sounds.
Lets us know how the spin dry cycle goes with a wet cotton 4m x 8m item goes.
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Well, just in case you end up with a lovely white sheet, here is the link to the Persil site for more detailed info than my paraphrase. Note it says "the speedier the better" to tackle it, so that plane may have flown.
www.persil.com/uk/laundry/laundry-tips/stains/get-dye-clothes.html
Last edited by: Crankcase on Fri 9 Oct 20 at 17:18
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"Well lets run the flag up the pole and see who salutes it"
Always wanted a chance to use that one.
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...given the quality of the suggestions, I think a Plan B is in order:
tinyurl.com/pinkplanb
;-)
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You beat me to it....I was waiting for the chance...:-)
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>>Note it says "the speedier the better" to tackle it, so that plane may have flown.
By some months, regrettably
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This has not gone well.
Firstly I confused my flags. The one from the WWII ship is not pink. It sits folded on my shelf and despite being quite worn the colours are just fine and it will be flying for Remembrance.
The pink one is, I think, from the British Embassy and is clearly of dubious heritage, particularly insofar as colour fastness is concerned.
After some considerable effort I managed to obtain the local equivalent of Persil Bio as recommended by the man from Cambridge.
It shifted the colour alright. All the b***** colour. Now rather than the white bits being vaguely pink they are bright red whereas the red bits are slightly less red and the blue bits are a fairly nasty purple-y colour.
It is still soaking wet and lying in a bath full of water, so I am contemplating the next step. I'm fairly sure that letting it dry would be bad.
Suggestions welcome, as long as they're better than the last lot.
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...I refer the honourable (?) gentleman to my post above....
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I fear you may be correct.
However, I'm trying a thing......
I've connected a hose pipe to the tap (warm) and plonked it in the bath at the non-tap end and dislodged the plug at the other end slightly so that it is draining about the same speed at which it is filling.
So the bath remains full, and the flag soaking wet, but the water is gradually being replaced. It is getting less red, though whether or not it will ever get to be a usable white seems unlikely.
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...never mind; in the current environment you can always explain it away as the latest trend - a "gammon" union flag...
;-)
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>> the honourable (?) gentleman
So unquestionably a Gentleman? I can live with that.
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...I did consider adding a second "?". Whilst you might usually utilise the door that says so, I'm not entirely convinced...
;-)
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There's little doubt that I am a man, I could not have gone into the various scrapes and situations that I have if I were not.
It's the title of Gentleman which I was pleased with.
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"Honourable Gentleman" left me in the manner similar to an address to an incumbent of the opposition benches, as in "I'm afraid the honourable gentleman is {insert own deprecatory phrase}".
It seems to have reached you in an entirely different context, however.
;-)
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Oh I think that in this day and age subjective hearing is an essential skill.
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Man from Cambridge, he say issue might be magic words, "local equivalent".
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Man from Cambridge may have point.
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Turns out Man from Santiago should grow bigger balls, stick with the program, and have more faith in Man from Cambridge.
Water was purple, flag was purple, but I rinsed it with copious amounts of cold water and swipe me sideways with the rough edge of a pineapple, it all went right. Whites are white, blues are blue, and reds seem no less red.
So thanks, your advice was spot on, I owe you a beer. Though I am unclear why the purple water didn't stain the white bits pink like it obviously did last time.
Still, all's well that ends well I now just have to work out how I'm going to dry the b****** thing. I think I might have to stick it up the flag pole wet and let the sun sort it out.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sun 18 Oct 20 at 21:12
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That's a relief. If it flies, put up a picture somewhere?
PS no good, don't drink beer. Not allowed alcohol. Glass of water is fine.
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Pink Union Jack. - sherlock47
