Cleaning Old Glory

L

LightningLink

New member
I have several burial flags that I need to have cleaned before putting them in flag cases. I have kept them out in the open, and over the years they've gotten a little dirty.

Does anyone know what kind of place I should look for that takes care of this? I have to be extremely careful about who I let handle this, as one of the flags is a 48 star from my Step-dad's dad.

Thanks for any advice,
LL
 
Start at a dry cleaners. If they haven't got the facilities to do this, then they should have someone contracted. If not, then contact your state historical society or a museum dealing in this stuff. If it is a really old flag (meaning the condition not age), you'll want to be terribly careful with it. Don't chance somthing though. Put it in a case dirty if you have to.
 
Contact these guys:


Dixie Flag Manufacturing Company
1930 N. Pan Am / PO Box 8618 / San Antonio, TX 78208
Toll-Free (800)356-4085 / Fax : (210)227-5920
E-mail : dixieflg@dixieflag.com
 
I don't know where you live or what the flags are made of. I would look for a good old traditional sail cleaner like in the Annapolis, MD area. Who nows, if you are near a navy base they may have someone that would do it for free given the history of the flags. Traditional sailing is still big with navy guys and a lot of other talents go with that. Cleaning, repairing and maintaining valuable cloth happens to be one of them.

Even though most sails aren't made of traditional cloth anymore, most of us sailboat guys pride our selves in being chea...uh..thrifty :) Not unusual to have sails last 30 or 40 years.
Must be something to it.
 
Ruger Guy - 30 or 40 years? You mean you don't buy new brown sails every year? Don't tell me you have those old Dacron sails....
 
Vaquero,

When I buy a sailboat it's already 25 years or so old. I breath new life into her with some real TLC. Then use every bit of those old sails as long as I can get away with. :) :) I take real joy in not making payments on a sailboat. Besides that, don't they need to get a little age on them to gain a personality and really appreciate their new captain? :) :)

I don't like brown sails anyway. I'm one of those guys that sets the sheets, sets the autopilot and enjoys the quiet ride. An extra .1 knot? Who cares. Now if someone has a set of those brown sails sitting around that they want hauled away.....I guess I could help out with that.

I guess I just proved that I don't sail out of Annapolis, uh? :) :)
 
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