Anyone Else Use Bluing?

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launderess

launderess

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Just wondering if anyone else besides moi, still uses laundry bluing?

Have several in my stash now; vintage Mrs. Stewart's, Bluette, Coleman's bluing cubes, (which I like the best). Am on the hunt for La France and other powdered bluings as like how the work.

Since my detergent brand "Cheer Free and Gentle" does not contain OBAs. Silly CR gave it a poor rating for brightening but "DUH" it is supposed to protect colours OBAs can cause certian colours to fade). Anyway find an occasional bluing rinse or added to the wash (depending on the type of load), keeps my whites "whiter than white".

Linens and shirts get a bluing in the same bath as the starch rinse. Other household laundry is blued as I wash, using Bluette.

Any one else?

Launderess
 
Bluing Magic!

To be honest, I have never even tried bluing. Where does one usually pick it up, as I have also never seen in the regular grocery stores.

Does it work better than chlorine bleach or non-chlorine bleach on whites and colours?

Venus
 
At least around here,

Mrs. Stewart's Bluing is available in grocery stores, in the "specialty laundry" section, near the starch and Calgon.

I LOVE the expression on her (Mrs. Stewart's?) face.

"Here I am with all these children, and the Mr. ran off with that hussy Evangeline LeMaye. Guess I'll have to take in laundry to make ends meet. Good thing I have these new Whirlpools."

I've used bluing, I think it's fun, I don't find it essential.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Bluing Is Not A Bleach

But a way to counter the yellowing caused by age of cottons and linens. Long story short, the colour blue cancels out yellow (see any colour wheel), thus human eyes "see" a whiter white. Blue white also appears "whiter" to most human eyes, however in some areas "red" white is the prefered colour of white.

Before optical brightening agents, bluing was used to keep whites "white". Unlike OBAs, bluing is not a ultraviolet light reflector, nor does it bind to human skin. One blues when it is needed and each sucessive laundering removes some of the blue, until it is time to do it all over again.

Bluing is not just for laundry; "blue hairs" is an old term for old ladies who use blue rinses in their grey hair to counter act yellowing. Livestock, dogs and cats also are subjected to various types of bluing to make their white coats "whiter than white".

Most liquid bluing today is "Prussian blue" which is a chemical containing ferrous sulfate (iron). If one blues in a rinse water that contains acids (such as vinegar), you will get scent sort of like mild rotten eggs. This is caused by the chemical reaction between the bluing and the acid in the vinegar. Also when using pure soap for laundering, all traces of soap must be removed before bluing or the blue will react with the alkali of the soap leaving blue spots.

All this palaver is why housewives were happy to give up bluing for OBAs when they came on the scene. Skipping bluing not only saved a laundry step, but lessened the chance of causing damage to a textile by over bluing or getting undiluted bluing on an item. Many liquid bluings were/are almost inks (some vintage liquid bluings were marketed as both laundry blue and ink for marking). Just like ink, get undiluted bluing on an item and you may have a tough time getting it out. This is why I prefer the old powdered bluing in cubes or "Dolly" sticks. It is so easy to remove excess powdered bluing.

Launderess

Launderess
 
Hand Raised

I use bluing on a regular basis but don't have the perfect mix down yet. Sometimes I have had blue streaking which I then have to remove with Yellow Out. But when I get it right, I do like the results.

Geoff
 
Re: Using Bluing:

Hey! Ross, westyslantfront, where are you!!! Your a long-time user of Bluing, for your "Special" Laundry...

Peace and Happy Bluing Days, Steve
SactoTeddyBear...
 
Said: Unlike OBAs, bluing is not a ultraviolet light reflector, nor does it bind to human skin.

Response: AHA-- I always love to learn new things. I assumed the body would react to the dye and kept its use minimal....

sensitive skin, ya know.
 
I really miss LaFrance bluing. I have been unable to find it for some time now. I tend to use bluing to extend the life of my colored clothes after they have begun to loose their sharpness from the effects of chlorine in our local water supply----which doesn't take long.

In my opinion the Mrs. Stewarts formulae won't hold a candle to LaFrance.
 
Since most modern detergents are loaded with optical brighteners, I don't use bluing. However, it was a staple for white loads in my house when I was growing up ('60's-70's).

I didn't realize how strong detergent brighteners were until I changed all the light bulbs in my house over to energy-saving fluorescent ones. That lighting really makes the whites 'pop'. Folding white clothes atop my white laundry appliances nearly requires donning shades, LOL!
 
Bluing

Hi Laundress. I have used bluing for years. When I lived in New York City, I used Bluette but since moving out West in 1997, it is Mrs. Stewarts. For many years, I have always been on the Altar Guild of whatever parish I belonged to in New York, Palm Springs, and now Tucson (Episcopal). My job has always been washing and ironing Communion Linens and vestments worn by acolytes (altar boys and girls) and also by clergy....all whites
The Altar Guild ladies are amazed that I can get the whites so white and ask what is my secret. I tell them bluing and they usually say......oh yes, I used to use that years ago...I respond that it counters the yellowing action of bleach....My recipe for whites....Hot Water, Bleach, and Bluing. Communion Linens go straight from the washer spin dry to ironing board with a hot, dry iron but vestments, I use plenty of fabric softener and iron with Magic Spray Sizing. A few weeks ago, after doing one of the Rector's cassock albs he commented on the how nice it smelled and I told him April Fresh Downey. My nickname is sometimes "Our Lady of the Laundry Room"
Pardon my little bit of pride but as I watch everyone process each Sunday, I cannot help but feel a bit of pride that everything is so white and freshly ironed.

Ross Roberts
"westyslantfront"
 
Our Lady of the Laundry Room--
(Sounds venerable, n'est-ce pas?)

What is the sequence of events/chemicals when bluing and bleach are utlimately used on/in the same load?

Tell us ALL your coveted secrets.
 
I've used Mrs. Stewart's as directed and saw no results. I upped the dosage, nothing. My rinse water looked like new blue jeans washed in hot water, I didn't see a difference, not even more blue on the cotton and less on the synthetics.

Same with LaFrance. Nada...
 
I never use bluing. I think it actually makes whites a little greyish. Bluing is indeed good when you use chlorine bleach. Chlorine bleach takes the blue out of the spectrum of the white. The bluing can correct that. But if you don't use chlorine bleach but oxygen bleach you don't have the problem so you don't need the solution either.
 
Grey laundry when using bluing is the result of over bluing the wash/leaving items too long in the bluing bath. One really only needs a few minutes of allowing wash to dip in and out of the bluing bath. Again the reason I prefer powdered bluing is that it seems easier to wash out than the liquids, so excess bluing wil come out faster.

La France was WONDERFUL! According to Dial corporation, the company who made La France suddenly went out of business and Dial had no chance to even stockpile the product. At this time Dial has no plans to reintroduce La France, more is the pity for many of us.

Yes, bluing can correct the yellowing caused by chlorine bleach, but disagree it is not needed if only using oxygen bleach. Suppose if one is using a detergent or oxygen bleach loaded with OBAs like the new "Biz" or "Chlorox II", bluing would not be required. However if one does not use products containing OBAs (which I do), sooner or later cottons and linens will turn yellow out age. Bluing can correct this quite easily.

If using chlorine bleach in the wash cycle or "bleaching" cycle, one blues in the final rinse.

Some do say they cannot tell the difference when using bluing, and that may be true. My only suggestion is that perception of "white" may be quite different amoung various people. Bluing does do the job it was made for, otherwise ages of housewives and launderers would have abandoned it ages ago.

Remember bluing is only to add a slight, very slight blue tint to wash. If one has really badly yellowed items, such as linens that have turned yellow from contact with body oils and or improper launderng, bluing alone will probably not turn them "whiter than white" again.

Launderess
 
Launderess,

I guess the OBA's play their part too. Overhere detergents for whites contain both an oxygen bleach and optical brighteners. So no need for bluing here. And if your whites are really white the bluing, even a regular dosis, will make your laundry a little greyish. I noticed that a few times.
 
OMG did we find a teensie mistake here?

ah Louis, now I get to be exacting.
Finally you have made maybe ONE small mistake in English (maybe).

Cant find "DOSIS" in English dictionary but it IS perfect Greek! and probably Dutch as well.

I believe you meant *DOSAGE*

(PS a gallon is still 4 litres in my book S**EW 3.78
LOL LOL.)

Love ya Louis, mean it!
LOL
 
ok everyone, watch him accurately tell me it IS perfect high-falutin' English!

35% of English is Greek, (much of it not derived; actual unadulterated) concentrated in the higher sciences and medicine.
 
What brands of bluing are out there, besides Mrs. Stewart's and the now deceased LaFrance? I remember American Bluing, made in Buffalo, NY from my childhood...
 
There are only two brands of bluing still produced/sold in the United States: Bluette and Mrs. Stewarts. Bluette seems to be an North East favourite, while Mrs. Stewarts is nationwide, but seems more known outside of the North East area.

Really cannot think of any others. Tintex sells a "whitener" but it is basically heavy duty OBAs in powder form.

Trivia question:

Which fabric softener featured commercials where the tag line was "A fabric softener that whitens too? She sure does love you". This fabric softener was advertised as containing "bluing for extra whiteness".

Launderess
 
Give That Man A Kewpie Doll!

Yes, "Final Touch" it was!

Remember watching soaps with mother dear during the afternoon and the commercials for "Final Touch". My favourites were a woman and her mother rabbiting on about how "white" and "soft" baby's nappies were. New mother would tell her mum she used "Final Touch", with bluing for extra whiteness. Grandmother would scoop up freshly changed baby and give him a cuddle with the tag line: "your mother found a fabric softener that whitens and softens too? She sure does love you"!

Sadly none of the infants ever in my care seemed to mind much what fabric softener their nappies were rinsed in. A few boys did have darn good aim though, this prompted me to ask a friend in Europe to send me several waterproof "nanny aprons".

Launderess
 
Well, I cannot remember NOT using laundry bluing. Always done in the final rinse on white loads that were Cloroxed (If you lived in Brooklyn, you might have used a brand of bleach called "Aqua Lina". Purex was a west coast brand so not widely seen here in the NE. I do think the right amount of bluing does make a difference in whites. The trick is to mix it with water before adding to the washer - that removes the poossibility of streaking.

Currently we have here in CT both Bluette and Mrs Stewart's liquids. I have tried Mrs S. and didn't really think much of it. It just looked like blue food coloring in the water. Bluette does a much better job. Originally I remember my mother using a solid bluing called "Bleachette" It was two round chunks wrapped in cheesecloth and sold in a cardboard toilet paper roll covered in a blue and red foil wrapper. She would fill a quart container with warm water and dip until the color was just a little darker than she wanted. Then she would add the contents to the wash. If the rinse agitation had not yet started, she would take her " bleach stick" and stir up the wash to mix. Interesting she and Aunt Jennie did the same thing - a throwback to when they had to help their mother wash for 11 kids by hand and clothes got boiled, bleached and rinsed repeatedly until not a trace of scum remained. Quite backbreaking.... In later years, the bleach stick became the pasta rolling pin - it was just the right diameter and was certainly clean enough......

As to other brands of bluing, I remember a few others. Purex had one called "Little Boy Blue" that was sold in small glass jars. Another brand was "Bonnie Blue" and carried a picture of (I guess) a Scottish lass on the label. They also made the pink softener - "Bonnie Fluff". Both of those have been gone for years. I am almost sure that the solid "Bleachette" and Bluette were made by the same company and that moving to the liquid version was somewhat evolutionary. I haven't been able to find LaFrance for years. I guess the idea of bluing the final rinse with all the oprical brighterers in today's detergents may seem old fashioned, but I do think it is less harsh on the colors and is actually comforting to do this very precise process that our mothers did. I must say that there really nothing that equals the brilliant whiteness of a line full of carefully laundered white clothes and bed linens that have been blued to perfection.
 
Vintage Mrs. Stewart's Bluing

Just blue rinsed some linens with a drop or two of vintage Mrs. Stewart's bluing.

First of all the colour when diluted in 1 quart of water wasn't "blue" at all, but rather a greenish blue. The rinse bath was a similar but much lighter colour as the bluing was by then very diluted indeed.

Results? Very "white" laundry and totally absent of the "rotten egg" scent which often comes from using bluing after a "sour" rinse. This tells me vintage Mrs. Stewart's does not contain salts if iron,like other bluings.

Very interesting.

Little Boy Blue:

Never saw nor heard of the stuff outside of eBay, where for some reasons bottles both empty and in various states of fullness go for considerble sums.

Launderess
 
Daz

Not strictly a bluing agent on it's own, but Daz in the UK has bluing as part of it's ingredients. A nice effect of this is that, with whites hanging on the line, they are more of an "icy" white rather than a "snowy" white.

Mike, do any of the supermarkets here in the UK still sell bluing? I've kept an eye out here but being a small town ranges are limited somewhat.

Take care,

Jon
 

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