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Out, damned spot! out, I say! -- Laundry Tips

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Blotbot:
Like Lady MacBeth, I am plagued by spots that will not come out.  After trying to find some decent clothes for a doctor's appointment, I vowed that this will change.  So, I investigated the wash-ability of several common inks on a white cotton T-shirt. 
1.  Noodler's Heart of Darkness, a "bulletproof" fountain pen ink
2. Higgins Eternal
2.  Sumi Moonpalace
3. Walnut ink, from crystals
4. Iron gall ink (my own pomegranate ink)
5.  Chesterfield archival, a iron gall ink with blue dye for fountain pens.

First pic-
after ink dried for about 30 minutes.
Second pic-
After standard wash in washing machine, warm water, detergent was All with Stainlifters
Third pic-
After 5 hour soak in Oxiclean, 3 scoops to 1 gallon, run through a washing machine with no detergent
Fourth--
Run through washing machine, small load, with 1/2 c bleach

Results-
Avoid HOD, Higgins Eternal and Sumi if you want to get it out of your clothes.  Really permanent. 

Iron gall and walnut crystals will come out a bit with Oxiclean, but not all. 

If you can bleach, then walnut crystal ink is your best bet.

Still, I am not happy with this.  I have ordered Winsor and Newton black ink and Manuscript black ink.  Both are claimed to be water soluble and washable.  We shall see, on the other side of the T-shirt. 

joi:
OMG this is AWESOME!!!
and my entire wardrobe is from Old Navy anyway, as i already get smeared with food, boogers, crayola, etc everyday so what's a little ink anyway :)

Moya:
That is an awesome experiment!!!

I think the moral of the story is "wear an apron" ... I never wear an apron :-[ I have already ruined some nice office clothes, but I just don't learn. 

Nickkih:
Wow how cool are you. Great work!

Roseann:
Thank you for sharing the results of your experiment with us. 
So good to know!

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