Pre-Season Spring Clean

[Paul Elliott]

So its time to open the workshop, and have a look at the equipment I'll be needing this year, and its the same old story I thought I'd put my shoes away dry last year, but they must have been slightly damp from the dew that morning. Now they're green with mould! I never learn. I should really keep my leather boots inside the house instead of my unheated workshop.

Its fixable, but annoying.

Anybody else found some horror stories lurking in their store-rooms?

[Peroni]

Same happened to me one year. Now if I put things like boots away, I oil them well then apply a rub of vinegar. Stops mould growth. (vinegar works the same for pottery and wooden bowls etc)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I found a mould suppressing oil at the saddle shop down the road, as I forgot to clean my boots after Septembers mudfest at Archaolink.
I have decided to treat my boots with this as well as neatsfootoil and waterproofing oil, just to be safe.
Also will try this on my cheekpieces on a helmet that has decided to grow mould spots. :x

I'll have to try the vinegar on my pottery though.

[jvrjenivs]

As I don't really have a season-stop (that is I have been in kit at least 2 times a month, if not more over the last couple of months) and almost all my gear is in my sleeping room, inside the house, I don't find strange stuff often. But yeah, after I opened an old box some days ago, when cleaning a bit, I found an brown helmet, and I was pretty sure it wasn't that brown when I put it into there. Luckily enough mostly surface, so it needed only a little bit of work to get it to a better finish again.

[Paul Elliott]

Oh yes, pottery ... now matter how dry it seems, you always seem to collect mould - at least when stored in the cold. That vinegar rub sounds just the thing.

[M. Demetrius]

...but don't use the moldy vinegar rinse to make posca. :mrgreen: :!:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

...but don't use the moldy vinegar rinse to make posca. :mrgreen: :!:

You mean the mould doen't make it poscacilin? :o

[Crispvs]

I used to keep all of my kit in the understairs cupboard, but after three successive years of finding my boots covered in mildew and my sword, helmet, armour and shield boss displaying heavy amounts of rust, necessitating several hours of cleaning up before the first job of the year, I ended up keeping my caligae with the rest of my regular footwear and my helmet and armour in the dining room (with a cloth laid neatly over the top of the box so as to satisfy my wife's aesthetic tastes). Mildew and rust have not been much of a problem since I started doing this about three years ago. The understairs cupboard now only accommodates my tent, sleeping bag, the tool chest, the ironing board and the vacuum cleaner, none of which appear to be affected by the damp which always seemed to attack my kit. My pottery canteen gets hung up with its stopper removed, allowing any moisture to evaporate out of it. My crest has always hung from two hooks on the wall of my study so as to keep it as far away from any disturbance as possible.

Crispvs