Another Good Way to Take Foorth Spottes of Greace Out of Any Woolen or Linnen. (Fullers Earth) – 2014

Out of the collections I reviewed, there was only one recipe I noted as using fuller’s earth; however, I was curious how this would work with stain removal.  This recipe is from the 1588 text, A Profitable Booke.

Fuller’s earth is a fine-grained, naturally occurring substance that has oil absorbing properties.  It has been used by textile workers or fullers to clean raw wool by mixing it with water and scouring the wool with this mixture.  For this reason, it should be decent for helping to remove the grease/oil based stains at least.

Another good way to take forth spots of grease out of any woolen or linen.

Take first a little fair (clean) water, all to wet and rub the said greasy spots.  Then take a quantity of walkers clay, called Fullers earth, and rub a little therewith your spots all over.  Then rub and chafe your cloth upon itself, so done, take a silver spoon or such like thing, and scrape out the said filthy water and grease, and if then it be not all clean, do so again as before is mentioned, and then take a little warm water, & all to wet the said place therewith so done.  Then wring and scrape it forth as the other before.  Being then clean, let it be dried and it will be well.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp Fuller’s Earth
• Water

Rub fuller’s earth onto the moistened stain and rub the cloth together.  Scrape the soiled mud off the fabric with a spoon or some other utensil and rinse.  Repeat if needed.

RESULTS:

I really wanted to see how this treatment worked on my oil stain but unfortunately, the olive oil stain rinsed out with water so this particular test was unable to give results.  This treatment was decent on removing the blood and mud stains.  This is another treatment I wish to retry on grease stains that don’t rinse out in water.

A. Olive Oil – Gone

B. Red Wine – OK

C. Mustard Sauce – OK

D. Green Sauce – OK

E. Blood – Gone

F. Mud – Mostly gone

G. Beeswax – Not Good

H. Iron Gall Ink – Not Good

Gone	No noticeable trace of stain remaining
Mostly gone	The stain has mostly been removed but there is a slight discoloration
OK	The stain has been lightened but there is still a noticeable discoloration.
Not Good	No change or the stain is still very noticeable.