How to Clean a Pennant?

[canjond]

I recently purchased the pennant below which is quite dirty. How would I go about cleaning it? Thanks guys!

[pclpads]

Dry cleaner?

[baseball tourist]

Lots of info on bleaching as an option in this thread around post # 1019 and after.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=183684&highlight=Bleach&page=13

I'd love to hear your process. I have some white pennants from the late 60's and early 70's that I want to clean up.

“Been experimenting with OxiClean (of Billy Mays fame) and thus far the results have been humorous. If you want to know how to turn a 1950's travel pennant into a completely blank pennant PM me. “

Hoping to have some time over the long weekend to experiment some more.
I use painters tape to tape off the colored border. Spray with straight bleach from a spray bottle. The pennant will be white in a matter of minutes. Then spray copiously with straight water. The one with the batter and ball also looked like hell when I got it.”

[ooo-ribay]

Lots of info on bleaching as an option in this thread around post # 1019 and after.


I use painters tape to tape off the colored border. Spray with straight bleach from a spray bottle. The pennant will be white in a matter of minutes. Then spray copiously with straight water. The one with the batter and ball also looked like hell when I got it.”

Thst may have been me that was quoted. I was always a huge proponent of bleaching and had many successes......until I totally ruined a pretty valuable pennant :mad:. The ruined pennant had red ink/paint that bled into everything. I will for sure never bleach another pennant that has red ink and my bad experience may have scared me off for good.

[Showdawg]

Ive used SHOUT, a tooth brush, and warm water and its worked like wonders

[CobbSpikedMe]

I'd love to hear more stories about cleaning pennants and the do's and don'ts as I have an old Saginaw Gears pennant that is filthy. I'd really like to clean it up if there are good ways to do it without harming the thing. It's supposed to be white by the way.

AndyH

[yankeesjetsfan]

I may actually try the Shout, warm water & Toothbrush method & see if it works on one of my pennants.

Mike

[canjond]

The experiment here has started.

1) Started with oxyclean and some light rubbing. Absolutely no results.

2) Moved to shout and the toothbrush - no bueno either!

3) Onto a bleach/water solution in the sink. The pennant has been sitting for about an hour and so far, so good. No color bleed and the results are terrific. I'm probably going to let it sit for another hour or 2 before taking it out to lay flat and dry.

Only mistake I've made so far is that I did not snap a good before photo. Needless to say, the pennant was MUCH worse than the picture above showed. In fact, it was so bad, I decided that I'd give the bleach a try because I viewed the pennant as being a lost cause in its condition anyway.

[ooo-ribay]

The experiment here has started.

1) Started with oxyclean and some light rubbing. Absolutely no results.

2) Moved to shout and the toothbrush - no bueno either!

3) Onto a bleach/water solution in the sink. The pennant has been sitting for about an hour and so far, so good. No color bleed and the results are terrific. I'm probably going to let it sit for another hour or 2 before taking it out to lay flat and dry.

Only mistake I've made so far is that I did not snap a good before photo. Needless to say, the pennant was MUCH worse than the picture above showed. In fact, it was so bad, I decided that I'd give the bleach a try because I viewed the pennant as being a lost cause in its condition anyway.

Awesome! As I said, I've had great results with bleach.....right up until I had a disaster. :rolleyes:

[Fballguy]

Bleach has been hit or miss for me depending on the age of the pennant. I experimented with a beat, white mid-70's Redskins pennant and it pretty much destroyed it without whitening it at all. Some older pennants have come out fantastic. All depends on the material....and I would avoid bleaching pre-1965 pennants with red paint.

The pennant pictured is modern enough that I don't think the red will be an issue. It would be more an issue of how the material responds to the bleach.

Let's see the after shot.

[brownscollector78]

Hey guys I've been reading through some of these older posts and I've been thinking about using the bleach method on this pennant.

<a href="https://ibb.co/RpXjF07"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/QFWDgNX/Screenshot-20230912-234651-e-Bay.jpg" alt="Screenshot-20230912-234651-e-Bay" border="0" /></a>

Do you think this would work out well? It looks like somebody else screwed it up in the past so if I could clean up that white that would be great.

[ooo-ribay]

Hey guys I've been reading through some of these older posts and I've been thinking about using the bleach method on this pennant.

<a href="https://ibb.co/RpXjF07"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/QFWDgNX/Screenshot-20230912-234651-e-Bay.jpg" alt="Screenshot-20230912-234651-e-Bay" border="0" /></a>

Do you think this would work out well? It looks like somebody else screwed it up in the past so if I could clean up that white that would be great.

I’ve done my share of bleaching. My gut feeling on your pennant is that the white will get whiter but the graphics will fade even further. Oxyclean is a milder option but it only seems to work on newer, more synthetic pennants. Good luck!

[Vintagedeputy]

Has anyone ever tried the dishwasher?

[NiceDocter]

What next? Drive em through the car wash?

[ser1979]

I've bleached several white pennants with good results, the only one I've messed up had red in it and I ended up throwing the pennant away. On my older wool pennants I use Retro-clean and warm water. I've never destroyed a pennant using this method.

[brownscollector78]

Thank you for suggestions guys

[JMEnglish27]

Yeah, my findings have been keep the bleach AWAY from anything wool/more vintage. 70s synthetic on forward you're good, though I wouldn't submerge. Mask it off where needed and spray, let sit, then hose off

Oh...AND...for some reason your spots/staining might come back over time. You're not eliminating them, just whitening them. Know that...and also remember that you can only do this a few times before making the pennant brittle

[JMEnglish27]

Yeah, my findings have been keep the bleach AWAY from anything wool/more vintage. 70s synthetic on forward you're good, though I wouldn't submerge. Mask it off where needed and spray, let sit, then hose off

Oh...AND...for some reason your spots/staining might come back over time. You're not eliminating them, just whitening them. Know that...and also remember that you can only do this a few times before making the pennant brittle

ALSO...if your pennant has that colored heel strip sewn on with fishing line type material, that may snap under the bleach. Be prepared to sew it back on, which is NOT hard provided you can sew in a straight line. Another reason to mask it off thoroughly if you don't need to bleach the heel.

[brownscollector78]

Yeah, my findings have been keep the bleach AWAY from anything wool/more vintage. 70s synthetic on forward you're good, though I wouldn't submerge. Mask it off where needed and spray, let sit, then hose off

Oh...AND...for some reason your spots/staining might come back over time. You're not eliminating them, just whitening them. Know that...and also remember that you can only do this a few times before making the pennant brittle

Interesting, because based on the previous fella, he said bleach worked quite well on the older pennants and made the newer ones bleed more. (unless I completely misunderstood him)

I bought that retroclean stuff and im gonna try that first since its less abrasive. Hoping that works so I dont have to use anything stronger.

[ooo-ribay]

Interesting, because based on the previous fella, he said bleach worked quite well on the older pennants and made the newer ones bleed more. (unless I completely misunderstood him)

I bought that retroclean stuff and im gonna try that first since its less abrasive. Hoping that works so I dont have to use anything stronger.

Bleach. 1961, 1962 and 1964. I don't have any older pennants that are white.

[Vintagedeputy]

Bleach. 1961, 1962 and 1964. I don't have any older pennants that are white.

Those came out great Rob!

[brownscollector78]

Awesome!!

[bocca001]

Bleach works well on cloth pennants and it looks like your Browns pennant is cloth. Most graphics colors do pretty well with bleach on those cloth pennants, but red does not, and the brown color on that pennant looks reddish. When I first saw it, I actually wondered if someone had already tried to clean it and ended up with a bit of color running.

As for retroclean, I did have it mess with the yellowish/white graphics on an old single bar Houston Oilers pennant (cloth). So I'd watch that carefully when using just to make sure you stop any problems as quickly as the arise.

Oxyclean works great on the stiff pennants from the 1970s and 1980s. Especially the white ones that turn brown/yellow over time. You often need to let it completely soak through that stiff stuff, which can take 15-30 minutes. I've had the graphics on some of those pennants dull just a bit given the amount of time it takes to whiten up one that is really yellow/brown, but they always look better than when I started. I've also used it on a stiffer orange pennant from the same era and it brightened that up as well.

[brownscollector78]

Update on pennants...

Initially I tried the retro clean with minimal results...so then I moved to bleach (40% bleach, 60% water)

I tried a white Browns pennant with brown script from the 60s (soft fabric) and bleach worked wonders. Its very nice and white now and there was no color run.

So then I tried to do the pennant I put a picture of earlier in thread (white soft fabric with orange script). I taped it backwards and only sprayed the back with a 40% mix of bleach and water. It was good until I ran it under warm water to clean off the bleach. The orange script ran everywhere. At this point it appears anything with red or orange will run. So now im letting it dry and contemplating my next move...........