Blancoed webbing

[Alexander]

I have recently bought this 37 pattern webbing belt, holster and ammo pouch, shown here with my deact revolver. The webbing is khaki but has been blancoed a green color. The green blanco is flaking off, reveling a white undercoating on the ammo pouch and holster. possibly they were blancoed white at some point, then covered in green. My question is whether it is possible to remove the blanco so that the webbing returns to its original khaki. Would soaking the webbing in warm water remove it, or what did British soldiers use to remove it. Thanks for any help offered.

[davejb]

If its ordinary blanco it should be water soluable therefore soaking and scrubbing should remove the green and white coatings, although never use this method on gaiters, the leather straps tend to shrink quite badly during drying

[talltom]

as long as there is no leather use warm water but not to warm (boil it then let cool for few mins) then wet a scruber and do some scrubing should look good

tom

[Alexander]

Thank you, gents, for the suggestions. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

[Alexander]

I have removed the old blanco from the webbing. I would like to ask the re-enactors on the forum, what do you use to blanco your 37 pattern webbing with. Can blanco still be found or is there some modern version of it. I aim to blanco the webbing in a green color (I think, from memory, it was called No. 97?) to match the WWII NE European color scheme. Thank you for any suggestions.

[Adrian Stevenson]

This is the site you need to read:

Blanco and Bull

Cheers, Ade.

[Alexander]

Thanks Ade.
After reading up on blanco I decided on purchasing a tube of Shoot n' Scoot K.G. No. 3 liquid blanco. I diluted it with water and it was fairly easy to apply to my webbing. This liquid blanco had a good review on the web site and I'm happy with the results.

[talltom]

looks very nice well done

tom

[davejb]

Looks good now , now you need to polish up your brasses and dont forget the rear strap buckles, and you cant use a button stick on them, lets see how you manage them without getting the polish on the blanco lol