At 9:22 AM -0600 7/1/99, John R Fortiner wrote: >Bill: I got your response. Please Do NOT be offended by this question: >Do you know what a surfactant is? If not, just say so and I'll attempt >to answer in not-so-technical terms. No sweat, John, we're all just boy scouts helping each other across various busy streets. Yep. A surfactant negates the water's surface tension, allowing said waterto be absorbed by a textile. The real question is what is the active ingredient which has a good (and highly respected) friend of mine saying that this fabric softener is even better than steam at releasing hard hammers. (Steam works grudgingly on reinforced hammers.) The jug mentions only "cationics (softeners)", whereas if they are surfactants only, they would be performing a vehicular function. A few rounds ago in the discussion (I've been through the archives already), David Stanwood opined that fabric softener's active ingredient was water (at least as far as the work we'd like it to do on hammer felt). In which case, we might as well employ a surfactant which is completely volitile, say alcohol, as opposed the fabric softener which leaves its own waxy solids. Wheresofurthermoreover (Jim Bryant,don't you just love the way over-educated Yankees talk?),if the speed with which the surfactant finishes its job is the issue, isopropyl alc is far faster than the farbric softener. But if we're talking speed, steam leaves eveyone in the dust. All of this assumes that the water cure is the only way to reclaim over-reinforced hammers. I've also been toying with the idea of a thin jet of acetone from an air brush, with just enough pressure so that 1.) the acetone won't evaporate before doing its work (how 'bout spray-tip directly to hammer crown) and 2.) the stream won't tear apart the fiber matt at the crown. Whatshould happen is that the acetone should undo the gluing together of fibers, and the spray stream should blow small amounts of air space back in the matt. I should call Lever's 800 # to see if they'll tell me what's in this stuff besides surfactants (therehas to be),and what it might be expected to do on wool fibers. Bill Ballard, RPT New Hampshire Chapter, PTG "I gotta go ta woik...." Ian Shoales, Duck's Breath M. Theater
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