Stone Wash
Stone washing is a textile manufacturing process used to give a newly manufactured cloth garment a worn-in (or worn-out) appearance. It also helps to increase the softness and flexibility of otherwise stiff and rigid fabrics such as canvas and denim.
Why Stone Washing?
- To create or produce irregular fading
- To remove dust, oil spots, and impurities from the garments
- To improve softness
- To achieve the buyer’s washing standard
Garments Loading with Stone Process
- Desize
- Rinse
- Stone wash
- Rinse
- Soften
- Tumble dry
- Unload
- Extract
Pumice Stone Pumice is a natural volcanic stone used for stone washing garments. It is crystallized with substantive pores. Pumice is mostly used for stone washing due to its durability to chemical treatments, its strength, and light weight.
To achieve the desired washed effect, the stone should be of proper hardness, shape, and size. For heavyweight denim fabric, large and hard stones are suitable, and smaller and softer stones are suitable for lightweight denim. The ratio of stone weight to fabric weight is 0.5 to 3:1.
The degree of color fading during stone washing depends on several factors, such as the garment to stone ratio, washing time, size of stones, material to liquor ratio, and load of garments. The washing time may vary from 60 to 120 minutes. Stones may be reused until they disintegrate completely.
Advantages of Stone Wash
- Garments achieve a vintage or old look effect after stone washing.
- The desired shade is easily achieved by applying stone washing.
- Stone washing makes the garments more fashionable.
- Less time is needed to achieve the desired shade than enzyme wash.
Disadvantages of Stone Wash
- Stone washing may cause back staining and re-deposition.
- Stones can cause wear and tear effects on the garments.
- Stones can damage the washing machine due to higher abrasion.
- Increased labor cost to remove stone dust from finished garments.
- Extra time is needed to complete the whole process due to removing stone from the garments.
For those interested in stone washing, readers can visit the Eco Stone Wash website at www.ecostonewash.com, or follow their Facebook page Ecostonewash for more in-depth information.