How do you clean the fringes on wool rugs?

The fringes are a different animal. Now I assume you're talking about cotton fringe on a wool rug. They will look dirty/dingy until they are dry almost regardless of what you do to them. I don't do them any more. There was never enough money in my part of the world to take on the risk and I was/am good at it. There's just not enough call for it around here.

Ken Raddon.

First, don't expect fringes to clean to white. That is not the natural color. They should be light brown in most cases, but can be dyed other shades.

Here are the steps I suggest -
1) Vacuum thoroughly. Remove all dry soil.
2) Wet down with clear water. The cotton is very absorbent. It will absorb this water. If you don't wet the cotton first, it will absorb your cleaning solution and whatever soil is disolved in your cleaning solution. So the soil gets carried deepr into the fiber.
3) In 1 gallon of hot water, mix the following:
1 Ounce of Boost All
2 Ounces of Buff All
4 Ounces of Fabric Shampoo
Mix into a foam.
4) Scrub the fringes with the foam using a horse hair brush.
5) Rinse with your upholstery tool. Use Avnege Clean Rinse in the rinse solution. Flush throughly.
6) Dry quickly to prevent browning.

Scott Warrington

MasterBlend has a good product called Frienge Bleach. If you are interested I can help you get it.

Couldn't have said it better myself.
One thing I don't like doing is letting the fringe enter the vacuum inlet. Whether it be just the hose or the wand or tool. When the fringe enters the vacuum it distorts the tiny braid in each strand and gives an irreversable fuzzy look.

I have used the Fringe Bleach of Master Blend and I liked it. I used it at my shop where their were no pets, kids and other possible disasters.

I brush and clean them by hand. I vacuum, prespray with Certified Liqua Acid mixed up in a spray bottle, gently use a horse hair brush or Handi-Groom to agitate and get all the fringe flat and even, and then clean with a stair tool on low vacuum and solution pressure. Dry rapidly, preferably off the ground. Once dry, the results are usually amazing. While still wet, they usually look a little dingy.

fringes are very easy to clean. I pre spray them very heavy with Procyon. You need to get the cotton real wet. Give it 10 minutes dwell time. Clean the fringe with your wand or hand tool as hot as you can. Flush it real good. When you are done elevate the edge of the rug with that black plastic drainage tube and run an air mover accross the fringe. It will be dry in about 15 minutes and look beautiful.

Dave
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Take a look at my 2 posts below with pics - might help you out a little.

Try: http://www.floorcaresystems.com/rugcleaning.html

After wet cleaning, I brush on Bridgepoint haitian cotton shampoo and then towel.

Easy!

You don't have to be a chemist with several products.

Brightens and corrects browning in one step.

Doesn't need to be rinced out.

http://www.truckmountforums.com/lisa-the-rug-chick-chatter/10991-fringe-cleaning-with-pics.html
http://www.truckmountforums.com/lisa-the-rug-chick-chatter/10992-fringe-cleaning-with-pics-pt2.html

Fringes get clean is you are giving rugs a BATH - and not surface cleaning them. So regular rug shampoo can get them clean in that process.

In side by side testing - the best solutions for cotton fringes in my experiences in my workshops have been cotton shampoo (I like MB's because doesn't smell horrible like Haitian cotton) and all fiber shampoos. The thing is, you do have to SCRUB them. We use warm/hot water to rinse and release more soil - but careful to not get the wool wet with hot water.

Regarding fringe bleaches - these WHITEN - they do NOT clean. So you need to clean them before you try to bleach them. I personally don't care for the bleaches.

Really trouble areas - you can also use traffic lane cleaners - or enzyme boosters - they work well on cotton. It takes time though... and do read the other posts on this that rugman posted.

Thanks,
Lisa

It is my understanding that on some tribal rugs, the dark appearance of the fringe is the natural color of the goat hair that is sometimes blended with the wool and is not discoloration or browning. In that case, you should not use a bleaching agent, it's supposed to look darker.

Okay - wait a minute... if the fringes are WOOL - then do NOT use bleach AT ALL. Use the same solution you use for cleaning the wool face fibers.

Most rugs that are wool these days have COTTON fringes - these are two VERY different beasts.

And you do need to see if there are multicolor wool strands used.

Be careful if it's wool fringe - you will create a mess if you treat it like cotton.

Lisa

You can always tell a rug that had it's fringe bleached at each cleaning. Only the knots are left, everything else has fallen off We clean them same as the rug and use a browning treatment if needed. As far as dye migration, a q-tip and a weak, 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, clorox type bleach solution fixes that. Just spray with bleach neutralizer when you can just barely see the dye. By the time it dries, you won't see the dye.

Edit: This assumes it's a white cotton fringe, lol.

I also like to use Bridepoints Fabric prespray on stubborn fringes. Had one the other day that looked like a dog had made one corner of the rug his spot to lay on. After drying this area still looked dirty. i used my wood board (as descibed in above links) while it was on the drying rack. sprayed the area (about 18") - scrubbed lightly with a horse hair brush - hosed off and let a fan blow on it. Came out nice.

If you use rug wringer type of water extraction you really dont have to do any extra work, fringes, wool or cotton, comes out clean. Well, you have to clean them first and we jet wash the fringes and the kilim weave after shampooing. Never had any problem. the only time we need to use whitening is if we cannot wash the rug. Then it is brush with shampoo solution rinse and apply whitening.