Re: [Paddlewise] Goretex or Not?

Neil Somos wrote:
> 
> Someone had written about using an iron on the INSIDE to
> push DWR to the outside of Goretex.  I find myself confused
> about this.  In reading the Kokatat pages at ....
> http://www.kokatat.com/toptenqa.htm
> I am led to believe that you would run the iron over the OUTSIDE
> of the garment as the heat draws the treatment to the surface.

Yup, that's what it says there -- pretty close to a direct quote.  Far be it from me to contradict
Kokatat.  However, this advice is different from what Kokatat told me previously.  Frankly, Neil,
I'm about as puzzled as you are.

My earlier post (in which I said to iron from the INSIDE)was based on a phone conversation I had
with a Kokatat representative back in October, 1996.  I was surprised at her advice to iron on the
INSIDE of the garment, being brainwashed by many years of ironing shirts to think ironing on the
outside was the way to go.  Her claim was that the heat "vaporized" the DWR from the inner surface
of the OUTER layer of the laminate -- depositing DWR stuff onto the outer surface of the outer layer
of the laminate.  That made sense to me, based on the properties I would expect for a DWR coating --
gotta be nonpolar, and somewhat volatile, in order to be applied via spray can.  This is "dumb
chemist" analysis, and usually correct, but wrong often enough that first-hand knowledge is
certainly desirable here.

Anybody tried ironing both ways?  I don't have enough experience with ironing Goretex to say, from
what I've tried.

Thanks, Neil, for bringing this up.  Kokatat's site, BTW, has other useful info, also.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
dumb organic chemist, and getting dumber by the day
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