Cleaning Tunic ?

[CBH]

I have a North Nova Scotia Highlanders Tunic , it was in a house with a coal stove and it is very dirty from the coal dust . I would like to clean it ,but not sure how best to do that , without damaging it . Hope someone can help .
Cheers Chris

[Jerry B]

Great BD, sorry I can't help on the cleaning.

[António Fragoeiro]

Hi, i took my 1940`s Portuguese army tunic to the dry cleaner one.
I confess i was scared at first, but when i picked it up, i was very surprised, looked great, with no damage at all.
I had no problems.
Cheers.
Nuno

[Datrus]

I was thinking dry cleaning, if any.

Regards, Lars

[Battery Command Post]

If it was mine I would start by vacuuming it with a brush attachment, or even just the hose nozzle. After that, maybe use an iron and try pressing it with a damp cloth. That should lift out some of the crap. I would only use dry cleaning as a last resort personally.

Rob

[Ryan B]

Ive used dry cleaning a couple times and they have all turned out like they just came out in the 40's no damage and they looked awesome. Just be careful with the mothing holes they might get a tad bigger.
Ryan

[davejb]

I agree with Rob, its the least harshest action to adopt this way of cleaning

[tempelhof]

if you don't go conservative as Rob suggests (and you really should), better go to a real expert cleaner with a good reputation. if anything goes wrong, it is not likely to come from the dry cleaning process itself. it will be if someone goes and hard presses it. these machines use extremely high heat and pressure. then you can end up with damaged buttons and a "shine" on some parts of the material (especially edges such as near the collar) that will never go away.

tell them to hand press it gently and only if they must.

again, i can't exaggerate how important it is to have a cleaner that knows what they're doing. if you don't feel good about them when you're talking to them about this, go somewhere else.

i personally would skip cleaning it altogether.

[Wagriff]

I would take it to a reputable dry cleaner with caution instructions. I've never had a problem-even with WWI tunics or older.

[CBH]

Thanks for all the replies . I had tried vacuuming it before as Rob suggested ,and it helped take some surface dirt off . And where I live we only have one dry cleaner in town ! I was considering just soaking it in plane water and drying it flat . I will update you with how it all works out . Thank you all for all the input .
Cheers Chris