hey everybody Brandon Mason here with Eastman's hunting journals I'm at the
end of the hunting season and at the end of a hunting trip where I was successful
so it's time to wash some gear they see that width and I just go bonkers so
the years I've tried a million different things I've tried hand washing I've
tried aggressive detergents I've tried non aggressive detergents scent free
detergents so on and so forth and what our crew seems to keep coming back to
and using that is the most effective that is the least harsh on your gear but
yet still cleans up the garments the way they should be our products from Nick
wax and today we're going to be looking at the tech wash which is generally what
you use in your washer machine and there's different instructions from Nick
wax depending on the type of machine or hand washing or whatever you're using
with how much fluid you use in this particular case we're gonna use front
loader washing machine it's like 3.4 ounces that they want you to put in the
machine and it's friendly for high-efficiency washing machines which
we have here today which my personal opinion is I hate them because I don't
think they do as good a job that's why is it's important to have products like
Nick wax that are meant for this type of job and then we're not going to overload
it either one of the things that I think we're all guilty of is overloading our
washing machines and so there's not as much room for the washing machine to do
its job so have too many garments in there and so per the instructions on the
Nick wax we're gonna actually only load two garments in there I've got a pair of
pants they got really bloody from a recent deer hunt in Alberta Canada last
week we're going to clean those up along with another probably top piece or
something and then we're also gonna look at how I finish up my game bag cleaning
process and so it just has a little side note I usually hand wash those in cold
water really that's all you need to do but just to go the extra step to make
sure I got all of the blood and contaminants from the game bag so that
they're clean and ready to be used for the next time I'll finish them off with
an some sort of unscented detergent and especially in this case the Nick wax
works really good I say unscented because even the game bag
that are meant to not hold in the sense and other harmful chemicals that can
taint your meat just by the nature of doing it over and over again with these
reusable game bags you can do that and I just cringe when I see guys using
commercially made garbage bags to put their meat in because a lot of times
those have a smell even if they're unscented they have that plasticy scent
to them that can really damage the taste of your meat we go through so much to
bring home good table fare for our families I'm not gonna put it in a
garbage bag I never do that the only time I ever do that is if I have it in a
game bag first and then put it in a bag to keep if I have a pack that I don't
want to get dirty or something I'll put in there but largely I'd rather just
watch the pack up and what you can use knick wax for that as well rather than
deal with garbage bags so so we're gonna look at that and another side note they
do have down wash that's wonderful for down sleeping bags down jackets
we're not washing any of those today so we're not going to show that but and
they also have a way to revitalize some of the DWR finishes that are on a lot of
outdoor gear that we use today and today we're going to be washing clothing from
Sitka and we use a lot of different gear from Sitka many different layers
depending on the season and I've noticed it was some of the harsher chemicals I
was using before or detergents I should say for cleaning up my gear that it was
breaking down some of the cool features that Sitka has on their gear or anybody
doesn't matter if it's Sitka or anybody else quicker than it should and so again
I went back to using Nick Wax and using detergents that are meant for technical
gear we got a lot of people in our office that also ski they have high-end
ski equipment snowmobiling backpacking whatever whether it's hunting gear any
outdoor gear we spend a lot of money on our gear and there's no sense and you
know using and abusing it unnecessarily with chemicals we use it and visit
enough in the field that we don't need to beat it up in the washing machine and
so that's we're gonna do today we're gonna put 3.4 fluid ounces in this
measuring cup load the high-efficiency front load washing machine
and let it do its thing so you can see right there at this game bag it's mostly
clean but I got a couple pieces that dry down there that are left and a couple
stains and that should take that right out it doesn't affect the efficiency of
the game bag but as might as well get it cleaned up as much as we can and so the
pair of pants we're gonna be cleaning up you can see I accidentally sat in a pool
of blood from the deer that I shot when we were cleaning it up and they're
pretty bloody and nasty so I'm not going to spray them
I'm not going to condition them we're just gonna throw them right into the
washing machine and there that's one garment we're only going to put two
garments in there's another pair of pants they hold the stand by Sitka 90
percenters that they don't even make anymore but that was one of their
original layers that I took with on this hunt I'll throw that in there close it
up and you can see Nick wax it's just a open bottle that you pour in its there's
no special nozzle or anything on it between three and four ounces but right
there as you can see the marker on it we're about right for our fluid levels
pour it in the detergent tray and then we're gonna select our washing cycle now
one thing to keep on my - it depends on the garment that you're using for
technical gear or down or whatever what setting you're gonna use on your washing
machine most of the polyester is you're gonna want to put on a permanent press
but if you have merino wool or some other delicate fabrics just follow the
manufacturer's suggested washing instructions because they all differ and
the more natural the fabric even though they're tough long-term lee lasts a long
time with feel to use you really got to be careful with how you're caring for
them thankfully merino wool is not like traditional lamb's wool where it has to
be dry-cleaned it can be machine wash which is fantastic but you still have to
wash it on the right settings if it's not super dirty I'll do it on a delicate
setting which usually for merino wool is fine otherwise I'll do kind of a sport
wash if your washing machine has that that option on there and then after we
get done washing you can either put it in the dryer which I'm standing beside
right here or you can air dry it I prefer to air dry all of my stuff most
of the time outside I think it smells better smells more natural I mean we
can't ever completely eliminate our sent as hunters so I try to minimize my
scent if possible and I'm naturally fresh anyway so I smell so good for for
all my hunting trips but we try to minimize that of course with with our
laundry detergent but anyway you can you can machine dry it you can air dry it I
prefer to air dry it and in reduce any shrinkage even just in my opinion
machine drying things further beats it up and I'm trying to you know our gear
is really expensive I mean this particular pair of pants from Sitka
think retails for $225 so if I spent in $225 for a pair of technical pants I'm
gonna go to the enth degree try to protect that for field use for as many
years as I can get out of that gear well thanks for watching this tip and
remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel and check our blog for more
helpful tips just like this to help you take care of your gear so you have many
many years of use in the backcountry
you