How to Clean a Pennant?

[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]

Originally Posted by 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]

Originally Posted by 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

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]

Originally Posted by brownscollector78

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]

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

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.