Rotproofing my Jungle Greens

[Moondog55]

I just bought a pair of the old Australian Army Crimea waisted jungle trousers on ebay.
Call it a bout of nostalgia for my lost youth but these are my size[ not the size I was when I wore the Green] and tho expensive the beloved wife paid for them
While very well made pants they do suffer from mildew degradation easily. Can some-one help me find a recipe for the rotproofing solution made with copper sulphate?
I had all these recipes on the computer that died and my Gogglefoo is either not working or the government censorship of the web is blocking access to these sites

[wayno]

theres this, or were you specifically wanting to make your own?
http://www.nikwax.com/en-gb/products/pr ... abricid=-1

[Moondog55]

Unfortunately Nikwax doesn't prevent mildew very well.
The formula is simple but I can't seem to find it

[andrewa]

Moondog.

Thank goodness you've got all this camo stuff for snow camping. If you'd just bought white gear, no one would have seen you, but at least you'll now stand out in your snow pics.

PS doesn't mildew require humidity to grow.what sort of humidity are you expecting at your PV campsite?

A

[Moondog55]

Funny you should mention "Winter Whites" as i have a set or two
Nah I bought the jungle greens for nostalgias sake; I just want them to last a few years.
In Vietnam a set of these lasted about a month because of the constant high humidity and the lack of rotproofing

Should I bring my snow camouflage??

[sim1oz]

Moondog,

I started off concerned I might not find PV hut in the snow so easily, but now you have me worried we might not find you!!! Can you leave the camouflage dress ups for the weekend we are not coming to PV??? (whichever that one ends up being).

Forgive my ignorance, but what material are jungle greens made of? I did a quick Google search and found these:

Copper Soaps as Rot-Proofing Agents on Fabrics http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie50410a018

Improvement of Rot-retardant Properties of Jute and Jute Goods http://www.worldjute.com/jute_news/news4.html
...Past investigations have indicated that 0.5 - 2% copper content gives maximum protection against rotting of jute products. The method that is long being used aims at forming a basic carbonate of copper on the jute fibre.
The definite protective action of copper-ions impregnated in the fabric has been proved from experimental data and field trials. It has been found that the average life of sand-bags can be increased six fold when treated with copper salts. This increased time/life of serviceability justifies economic pre-treatment of sand-bags/other jute products before use.
Therefore, to retard the process of decomposition or increase the durability of the jute products these need to be treated with copper compounds like copper sulphate, copper ammonium sulphate, copper ammonium carbonate, copper acetate, copper naphthenate, etc. ...
For the purpose of this treatment jute fabrics/ Hessian/ burlap is soaked in any of the compounds mentioned above and dried to ensure that 0.75% to 1.5% metallic copper is deposited on the fabric. It is this 0.75% to 1.5% metallic copper content by weight on fabric on dry basis which acts as an antimicrobial agent to protect the fabric from quick biodegradation. This insignificant amount of metallic copper deposition is sufficient to impart rot retardance to the fabric to protect itself without causing any harmful effects to the environment, so far known.
A considerable degree of rot resistance is imparted to jute materials by dipping them in a bath of a soluble copper salt such as copper sulphate. There are other copper salts like copper acetate, copper ammonium carbonate, etc. which can be used as well for the same purpose.
Copper under these conditions is taken up by jute in appreciable amounts and is fairly resistant to the leaching action of water. Copper, it is suggested, is bound by chemical/ physical combination with certain reactive groups, present mainly in the non-cellulosic constituents and lignin of jute. In view of the relative cheapness and ease of operations, the treatment appears to offer practical possibility.

[Moondog55]

The Willesden process is chemically very simple, alkaline copper salts partly dissolve the cellulose base. what I was hoping to find was information or temperature and timing.
Copper Ammonium hydroxide is the nominal agent
The pants concerned are pure cotton.
It's OK the tents are red

[andrewa]

Moondog, I'm hoping you've hidden your fire wood well.

I was on the forums.ski.com.au/forums, and noted that "Ubiquitous Steve" had posted somewhere that there was plenty of firewood at PV hut....which seemed to be a post just after you had been there......

A

[Moondog55]

The hut did have plenty of firewood stacked inside when we were up making the dump

[sim1oz]

Hi Moondog, any luck with your rotproofing recipe?

[Moondog55]

Not so far. Backburner project now while I get ready for winter and skiing