How do you wash your dark cloth?

[Wally]

I've got a Harrison dark cloth: shiny metallic-like waterproof-looking ripstop on one side, black cotton on the other.
It's begun to smell a bit musty since I switched to using a black jacket for my studio camera last year, and I want to put it to use again, on my field camera.
What's the right way to wash one of these without damaging it? If I use bleach I'm afraid of bleaching the inside black to some shade of gray.

[Vaughn]

I'd give the maker a call or email and ask them...

http://www.cameraessentials.com/index.html

Vaughn

[Turner Reich]

...and what about washing the Calumet dark cloths, as with many they have lead weights in the corners.

[Walter Calahan]

I don't.

[Alan Rabe]

I throw my Zone VI in the wash. It also has lead weights. But Lead don't rust. It just bangs around in the dryer.

[Toyon]

I throw my Zone VI in the wash. It also has lead weights. But Lead don't rust. It just bangs around in the dryer.

Doesn't be too sure that it is lead.

[eric black]

Me personally, I would do an in the sink wash with cold water and Woolite which is typically used for very fine/delicate fabrics and then air dry it- IM guessing that if you just air it out by hanging it in a well ventilated place for a while and maybe hit it with a spray or two of Fabreze your problem would be solved and the smell would go away.

[Bruce Watson]

I throw my Zone VI in the wash. It also has lead weights. But Lead don't rust. It just bangs around in the dryer.

It is highly unlikely your weights are lead. Why? Costs too much. Buying and working with lead in the workplace comes with a host of environmental regulations, OSHA workplace safety regulations, and all the requisite accounting procedures. If you gotta have it, you gotta have it, like in the manufacture of batteries.

Corner weights don't have to be lead, and therefore almost certainly are not lead. Probably some cheap steel they got a deal on. Easy to work, safe, hardly any regulations, cheap to buy.

Your corner weights may or may not rust. If the dark cloth manufacturer got a deal on some stainless scrap, you might be in luck. They also might have coated the weights in something like the vinyl on tool handles -- to keep them quiet and less prone to break things like a ground glass when they get whipped around in the wind.

Now I've thought way more about the weights in dark cloths than is probably wise or healthy. ;-)

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I did mine in cold water in the washer and then dry in the dryer. Smells nicer now and did not shrink or cause any problems. I would follow Vaughn's advice though and contact the manufacturer.


Jim

[D. Bryant]

I don't.

Ditto. Use a wet wipe to freshen the cloth.