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How To STRIP A JERSEY 101


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The A on my newly-acquired Lightning is not stitched on. How do I tell exactly how it’s attached? Once I do, how do I go about removing it if it’s heat-pressed or glued?

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I swear I saw it mentioned here but can’t seem to find it.  Anyway, I have some slight pilling on a few areas of a jersey I just stripped.  I was able to clean most of the residue up and it looks pretty good.  I plan on customizing it but the number was a “2” and I’m going to be getting “19” so I’m concerned it won’t hide all of the pilling completely, although most will be covered.

Would a lint/fuzz shaver work on a jersey to clean up the pilling?  I don’t want to damage the material but I’m pretty sure someone mentioned this somewhere.

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I bought a lint shaver, didn't have the success that others had but I bought a really cheap one. 

I stripped a baseball jersey recently that was ultrafil and used a Lady Bic razor on a hard flat surface, it really did a great job. 

*Ya don't press or pull hard, just let it glide over and it'll clean it up. 

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4 minutes ago, Hockey Bob said:

I bought a lint shaver, didn't have the success that others had but I bought a really cheap one. 

I stripped a baseball jersey recently that was ultrafil and used a Lady Bic razor on a hard flat surface, it really did a great job. 

*Ya don't press or pull hard, just let it glide over and it'll clean it up. 

He uses the same one he uses on his legs. 

;) 

 

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4 hours ago, Hockey Bob said:

I bought a lint shaver, didn't have the success that others had but I bought a really cheap one. 

I stripped a baseball jersey recently that was ultrafil and used a Lady Bic razor on a hard flat surface, it really did a great job. 

*Ya don't press or pull hard, just let it glide over and it'll clean it up. 

Never thought of that.  Maybe I’ll give it a try.  It’d be cheaper than a lint shaver and probably just as good.  Thanks!

4 hours ago, mfitz804 said:

He uses the same one he uses on his legs. 

;) 

 

“Honey, can I borrow your razor?  I need to...umm...clean a jersey.”

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  • 2 months later...

I come seeking advice from some more experienced strippers. This is my second jersey to strip and the first one went easily. It was a Dallas Stars 95-99 CCM AirKnit away jersey. Because the parts I stripped were black the adhesive lines were removed easily with the steam iron technique. Afterward you could not tell numbers had ever been put on the jersey. I have tried the ironing technique with this jersey (Dallas Stars 95-99 CCM AirKnit home) without success. There is still a very noticeable black outline where the numbers were.My fear is that the discoloration is actually from some of the color bleeding into the fabric and therefore attempts to remove it are pointless. My question is: Do you think it would be better to just cut my loses and take it to Blake's to have it turned back into a Hull or would an attempt with acetone be worth a try? Thanks in advance for any advice.

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That residue looks relatively mild, and should come out with a solvent like acetone, or Goof-Off.  If you work with acetone, you do have to be a bit careful, since the jersey is white- acetone dries quickly, so after you apply it and gently scrub the affected areas, you need to rinse it out with cold water quickly before the acetone dries, or you may see the discoloration bleed outward from the original outlines, leaving a lightly stained area.  After all is done, you’ll probably need to run the jersey through a wash, which is a bit of a shame, as I think I see an original paper Center Ice tag still attached to the neck tagging.

Goof-Off works well too, and has the advantage of not evaporating so fast, so you can take your time and let it soak into the material for quite a while, as the adhesive starts to soften and dissolve.  These 2 pics are of a Kings ultrafil I cleaned up with Goof-Off.  In the second pic, there’s still a very faint outline visible where the numbers used to be, but that can be reduced even further by soaking in Oxiclean later.

Kings1Kings2

EDIT:  After reading your post over again, I hope you didn’t iron the outlined areas too much, as heat can fuse the twill adhesive residue more deeply into the jersey material, making it more difficult to get out.  Ironing wouldn’t have gotten the color bleeding out anyway- that has to be removed with a solvent.

Edited by LAK74
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Alright, you have given me some courage. That Kings jersey you did turned out great and the lines in the before picture look darker than what mine are now. I think I'll try the goof off first and then move on from there. If I do end up using acetone what is the amount of time that I have before I need to rinse with cold water? Are we talking seconds or minutes?

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9 hours ago, cpack89 said:

I come seeking advice from some more experienced strippers.

Sure, “advice”....

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1 hour ago, cpack89 said:

If I do end up using acetone what is the amount of time that I have before I need to rinse with cold water? Are we talking seconds or minutes?

I’ve never really timed it, but I’d guess you have less than 20-30 seconds before it dries to the point where it won’t be effective enough to remove anything.  Even if the acetone does dry, you can reapply it without rinsing, but once the color and residue are gone, then rinse with fresh acetone and then water right away to remove any stain rings.

Btw, the Kings jersey took a bit of time to get clean; it wasn’t easy.

Edited by LAK74
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I have found that as long as you a working on the jersey, you don't need to rush.  I will remove all the residue I can from the entire jersey, then when I am done, I give it a good Oxyclean soak for about a 1/2 hour.  Then a wash on its own in cold temp/cold rinse, low spin with a bit of detergent. Hang to dry. That is enough to get rid of any acetone residue and your jersey should be clean of any marks. Once dry, that is when you should go over with a mid-heat iron (I use the polyester setting on my which a low enough setting where I don't have to worry about melting the jersey.  I always give quite a few blast of steam - that seem to help.

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Thanks so much LAK74 and spudrock512 for the advice. I just finished using the goof off and the jersey is soaking in OxiClean. I'll post some update pictures after a wash and an iron. Oh and mfitz805, you are appreciated as well. I'm a longtime lurker and knew you would appreciate that wording. Haha.

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4 hours ago, cpack89 said:

Oh and mfitz805, you are appreciated as well. I'm a longtime lurker and knew you would appreciate that wording. Haha.

I usually don’t disappoint in this regard. 

TWSS

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1 hour ago, mfitz804 said:

I usually don’t disappoint in this regard. 

TWSS

I want the old Avatar back.

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So I finished the process today and couldn't be happier with the results. Apologies if this post is redundant. I know there have been previous very detailed posts on strip jobs but just wanted to share my experience with the hope it might help someone else.

Step1. I set up on an ironing board in my garage to apply the suggested solvents. Before starting I covered the area I was going to be working on in aluminum foil because the fabric on the ironing board I was using had color and I didn't want it to bleed onto the jersey. 

Step 2. I used goof off (pro strength aerosol can) as the first solvent to remove the black outline and it worked like a charm. Although, I did run into one hiccup. I guess I was a little liberal with applying the goof off and it spread into the top green line at the bottom of the jersey. The green coloring started bleeding and even got a significant amount onto the fight strap before I noticed. However, the green bleeding came out with a wet rag and some shout. After the bleeding stopped and I recovered from a mini-panic attack, I laid a line of thoroughly wet rags over the bottom of the jersey to act as a barricade. Didn't have any issues with bleeding after this.

Step 3. After finishing with the goof off I soaked it in OxiClean for 6 hours and ran it through the washer with a bit of detergent. I was pleased with the result as it removed all the black discoloration but a faint yellowish outline still remained that was somewhat noticeable.

Step 4. I used acetone as the second solvent after putting down a barrier of wet rags along the bottom of the jersey. I applied acetone to the jersey with a cotton ball and then would scrub either with the cotton ball or a tooth brush. It removed the yellowish discoloration and no issues with color bleeding this time but it did leave an acetone stain/ring.

Step 5. Repeated step 3 except I only soaked it for 2 hours. The soak and wash removed acetone stain completely. 

Oh, I also forgot to mention. I knew I was going to have to wash it and as LAK74 noticed in the before picture, it still had its original retail tag. Thankfully, I was able to simply feed one plastic end through the hole of the fabric and removed the tag without damaging it. After it dried from the final wash I was able to put it back on undamaged.

Here is the end result:

img%5D

I'll be taking it to Blake's next week to have it turned into a Modano with an original 99 SCP. Thanks again LAK74 and spudrock512 for the advice.

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You might want to go over it with an iron on polyester setting or cotton (with a tshirt in between the iron and the jersey) to remove the previous stitching holes.  That is, if you haven't already.  Use lots of steam.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought I'd show off the strip I did on an Oilers Adidas team issued. As I was advised, it worked flawlessly! I'm so happy.

And thanks for all the advice that was given to me regarding my jerseys.

You cannot see from my pics, but a tiny bit of residue and folds are left from where the numbers were. I'm going to get this crested as McDavid at Elite Sportswear, and in the past they've ALWAYS removed such issues before cresting. But I have to say, this strip actually looks cleaner than any strip I've done before with Reebok jerseys.

 

Here are pics of the jersey BEFORE the strip:

 

Now, the seam ripper I had broke when I slipped on my bed. So I had to use something else. I took the risk. I'm not sure I'd recommend anyone else do what I did, but it did work with no issue. I'm not even sure what this tool is called:

IMG-0362.jpg

Is what I ended up doing, getting the job done very quickly, was looping the tool through a bunch of threads at once, and then ripping them all at once. It took so much strength that I had to sort of poke the tool onto something hard and use the hard surface as leverage to rip the seams. This method got the job done quite quickly. Hope I'm making some sense in explaining this!


IMG-0363.jpg
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IMG-0366.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does anyone have experience stripping felt numbered jerseys? The jersey I'm trying to strip seems to have used stronger glue than fabric so the felt material is literally ripping off in small pieces. Wondering if there's another way to go about it.

Follow up question would be how to wash jerseys with felt numbers/crests because they're more delicate?

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42 minutes ago, mdwsta4 said:

Follow up question would be how to wash jerseys with felt numbers/crests because they're more delicate?

I only ever had one with felt and I just washed it inside out and after several washes it still appeared new. 

For twill numbers, I always turn it inside out but its probably not even necessary. For felt, I assume the friction would eventually lead to pilling of the material if you didn't do it. 

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21 hours ago, mdwsta4 said:

Does anyone have experience stripping felt numbered jerseys? The jersey I'm trying to strip seems to have used stronger glue than fabric so the felt material is literally ripping off in small pieces. Wondering if there's another way to go about it.

I haven't yet but thinking about it for a few minutes, did you try hitting it with a steamer? It may loosen the glue and then go over the residue with goof-off or acetone? 

Guessing the felt may bond with the glue and leave clumps which I imaging would loosen up or will come off with either of the treatments mentioned. 

 

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On 8/28/2019 at 3:08 PM, StayFrosty said:

Now, the seam ripper I had broke when I slipped on my bed. 

Are we going to just let this go? He slipped off the bed with enough force to break a seam ripper and nobody is going to mention it??

In the absence of a seam ripper, I have used one of those tiny cuticle scissors, and also the tip of a pocketknife. Both of those methods took much longer than they should have.

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On 8/28/2019 at 2:08 PM, StayFrosty said:

 

IMG-0362.jpg

 

Ok, 
I have an excuse because I was out of town for work. 
Nice catch. 

Also, 
What the heck is this!?! 

So many questions 

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