On Thu, 1 Jul 1999 14:18:54 -0400 Bill Ballard <yardbird@sover.net> writes: > 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. Good, as I HATE sweat! :-))) > Yep. A surfactant negates the water's surface tension, allowing said > waterto be absorbed by a textile. More accurately a surfactant reduces/negates a liquid's surface tension ( not necessarily just water's ) ( the most common association with surfactants most certainly is water) and not just for easier absorbtion into a textile. Case in point - people in agricultural business use surfactants to allow sprays to be more easily absorbed by plant leaves - whether feeding them ( the plants ) or trying to get rid of them by use of herbicides. 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 IMHO the water is simply the vehicle for the real ingrediant. What this may or may not be I haven't the slightest idea, but I'm sure that the company making the stuff would reveal it to you - then again ......... :-( > (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. All the more evidence that water is only the surfactant's vehicle. 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. AND leaves NO residue - at least NEW residue. > > All of this assumes that the water cure is the only way to reclaim > over-reinforced hammers. And, if I understand even slightly correctly, the water works by "resizing" the felt - hopefully "fluffing" it a bit. 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 Does acetone have any "sizing" effects on wool felt????? I would doubt it - BUT I do know that it would certainly move waxes, oils, and other not-so-desirable things that are also found in wool. (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, Gluing together?? with what - the reiforcing additive, or what was holding the felt together before it was reinforced? I am under the understanding that the felt is not held together via a "glue", but via the "entanglement" of its own 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. Do it and let us know what you find out. John R. Fortiner Billings, MT. > > Bill Ballard, RPT > New Hampshire Chapter, PTG > > "I gotta go ta woik...." > Ian Shoales, Duck's Breath M. Theater ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.
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