ICOC Wash DC Aug 2015 Should you go?

The ICOC or International Conference on Oriental Carpets is the most important and prestigious event in the field of Antique Oriental Rugs. The biggest names in the field of Oriental Rugs come together for Presentations, a Dealers Fair, all sorts of Events plus Fellowship and Networking with the most prominent names in Oriental Rugs.

A Bergama Yastik

Why should this be important to an Oriental Rug Washer?

The more you know about rugs the more your customers will rust you. The more you know and understand Great Oriental Rugs the more likely customers are to trust you with their very best rugs. When you mention a rug you saw at ICOC your customer will see you as a rug expert rather than some glorified Carpet Cleaner or Janitor.

When your customer does not respect they are far more resistant to your prices and services.  When they say that price is more than I want to spend they are really saying that they do no think YOU are worth it.

Attending the ICOC is like taking University level courses in Antique Oriental Rugs.

ICOC 1986: Antique oriental carpets from Austrian collections Important ICOC-exhibition catalogue

Conference proceedings are regularly turned into scholarly books that appeal to the Collector Community. When you set one of these in your customer area you will be astounded by the reaction when you mentioned you attended.

Alberto Borilevi, Wendel Swan, and Bruce Baganz

The best and the brightest scholars and collectors attend. It is a chance to rub elbows with men like Italian scholar Alberto Boralevi, American collector Wendel Swan Chair, Executive Committee of the ICOC and Textile Museum Chairman of the Board Bruce Baganz along with many others. 

The Cadle small Bakhtiyari Gabbeh

One of the hardest things to learn about Oriental Rugs is why is one rug worth $1,000 and another rug not all that different is worth $100,000. This conference will give you an understanding and perspective into the magic of great rugs. Knowledge that your customers will perceive and respond to.

Attending ICOC is a Investment in your Future!

Register Today

www.ICOC-OrientalRugs.org/

The 13th ICOC Conference will be held in Washington DC from 6 – 9 August 2015. This edition of these always popular Conferences is being held in collaboration with and in support of the new Textile Museum on the campus of George Washington University. Memorable events will include, among other events, a series of lectures produced by ICOC at GWU, special admission to the important opening exhibition that fills the new museum, a reception, other exhibitions in and around Washington, access to The Textile Museum's new conservation and storage facilities and a post-Conference tour to Philadelphia and New York City.

Details and registration for the Conference will begin April 1, 2015. However, there will be a limitation on the numbers of registrants. Special hotel packages and extraordinarily favorable rates are being arranged. A Carpet Fair will be separately organized.

The Manifesto of Chlorinated Shame

One of the most terrible manifestos in the history of Rug Washing was when Tom Monaghan posted a letter purportedly by Robert Mann of Robert Mann Oriental Rugs. 5115 Race Ct, Denver, CO 80216 on a Carpet Cleaning discussion board. 
I post this in the hopes that Robert Mann will repudiate this shameful letter and clarify his position on Bleaching Rugs with Chlorine. Come on Robert say No to Damaging rugs with Bleach:

(Notice that Tom referred to the SECRET DICHLOR REPORT)
From Tom Monaghan:
Over the years, I have had the privilege to engage in discussions with many authentic and serious rug washers about the use of chlorine compounds in Oriental rug cleaning. One such recent discussion prompted Robert Mann of Robert Mann Oriental Rugs to email me his observations. His response to me was the result of reading another test result that was conducted on di-chlor and its use in the Centrum Force Starr Wash Tub. With Robert's permission, please find copied below his remarks on the subject line of this posted thread:

Email dated 10/9/13

Dear Tom,

Thanks for the testing info. It's interesting stuff, and I'm happy to see it. 

There are people worried about the use of chlorine compounds in Oriental rug cleaning, but I am not one of them. Various procedures using chlorine have been employed safely in the laundry and rug cleaning industry for a long time. New applications for different chlorine compounds (sodium chlorite and hypochlorous acid) are being developed and tested by rug cleaners today with promising and useful results. Sharing and discussing these results openly may lead to advances in our industry. 

Current talk regarding the alleged dangers and 'recklessness' of the use of chlorine compounds in rug cleaning seems a partisan attack whose goals are obscure. Certainly one can damage rugs or wool with chlorine compounds, but the contention that the use of this chemical is somehow absolutely 'wrong' falls in the same category as arguments suggesting that 'cars kill people'. Everyone's tool box contains implements which, when inappropriately used, can cause damage. We live with realities of this sort everyday; skill, training, and well developed procedures make this possible.

Historically chlorine compounds have been employed for many years to 'finish wash' rugs. This practice is still common today and has been used on the majority of handmade wool rugs we see as cleaners.

What am I talking about? The finishing of wool rugs, wool yarns, and other wool goods often involves the use of acids and chlorine compounds employed together to alter the structural properties of wool at the fiber level. Traditionally this was known as 'chlorination of wool'; today industry often refers to these wools as having been 'super washed'. These common processes are used to control shrinkage and felting, make wools easier to dye, to increase sheen and improve the 'hand' of the fiber. 

In the finish washing of new rugs this process is also used to reduce color intensity, creating a softened 'antique' look. The Oriental rug trade calls this 'luster washing' or 'antique washing' and in fact a majority of wool hand knotted rugs produced during the last 100 years or so have been washed this way to varying degrees. These are often very strong washes with surprisingly high concentrations of chlorine, sometimes applied at temperatures that dramatically accelerate their action.

A. Cecil Edwards, in his book "The Persian Carpet", suggests that chlorination and other 'antique washing' processes began around 1900 and evolved out of a need to supply the market with 'old looking' rugs when existing stocks were depleted by increased demand from the US and Europe. Fashion being what it is, the use of luster washing persists today because 'shiny' sells. 

Whether this is a good thing or not is a matter of opinion. Certainly there are whole categories of rugs that may have been 'over washed'. Af-Pak Choobi rugs come to mind, as do 90-line Chinese. Taste and fashion have dictated the use of these washes to a large degree and as we all know, tastes change over time.

Most antique Iranian rugs we see have been chlorine washed, often very heavily. Nearly all Sarouks, Kashans, Kermans, etc. were luster washed when they passed through European traders hands, or after they landed in the US. Modern Iranian rugs are heavily washed too. The highly regarded Zollanvari Gabbe productions that have been popular in the US for twenty years now have a very strong wash used on them. In fact the use of these washes is so pervasive that when we see the occasional rug that was not chlorine washed it looks so different that we are surprised by it's appearance.

I personally had the opportunity at the Woven Legends company to write the formulations for their washes for over twenty years. We did extensive testing on new production lines. Weaker washes, stronger washes, continually monitoring the results. Pretty much everybody else in modern production did the same; India, Iran, China, Pakistan, Romania, Turkey. I observed this personally. Nepal is an exception to the rule; producers there did not luster wash themselves, but rather sent goods to Knecht AG, a large washing company in Switzerland, a practice now discontinued because of cost and changes in fashion.

The washes used at Woven Legends were average in strength by industry standard. '150ml available chlorine' liquid bleach would be added to the wash tub at a rate of 3.5% of water weight and then boosted with .3% caustic soda by weight. That is about 245 liters of liquid bleach, about 30 gallons, in 7000 liters of water. The wash tub was fitted with a steam jet that brought run temperatures to 40 degrees Celsius, about 104 F. The rugs were run at this temperature for twenty minutes, the tank drained, and run again for twenty minutes with fresh solution if a stronger effect was desired. Keep in mind that chlorine action doubles in strength for every 10 degrees Celsius rise in temperature. 

It is worth noting that Woven Legends rugs were highly regarded and one of the hottest selling products in the high end hand knotted market for many years. Whatever they were doing, the public really liked it.

I have participated in the luster washing of rugs in India, Pakistan, and China as well. In all cases the wash formulations were stronger and more active than the washes used in Turkey.

Wash procedures of this sort have only a passing resemblance to the use of di-chlor in a wash tank. It is hard to compare the two but I would guess that luster washing formulations are easily ten to twenty times stronger than any effect di-chlor might have in a wash tank. 

Getting back to the rancorous politics of the moment, the question one might ask is why would someone be so worried about the use of a mild water purifier when nearly every rug they handle has been treated with a range of very powerful chlorine based luster washing procedures already? Who benefits from the continual attacks on the testing and development of safe procedures using chlorine compounds? Are people reticent to speak openly for fear of attack? One once had to drag a soap box to a corner and shout to however many might assemble. The internet has changed all that, but it has not necessarily improved the content of what is being said. Since it is nearly impossible to ignore the objections of the few, I believe it makes sense to present other views for people to consider.

Best wishes,

Robert
retrieved from http://mikeysboard.com/forum/index.php?threads/observations-on-use-of-chlorine-compounds-in-oriental-rug-cleaning.269164/

Should You be a Rug Washer

In response to one of my most popular blog posts

Four Steps to Building a Rug Cleaning Business

I got a great question on FaceBook: I was so pleased that I edited my response and decided to post it here.

The prestigious Red Dragon Rug Spa in England

From a Reader:
Start up costs the way your article describes bare minimum tools needed, seems extremely practical. My concern would be can I handle it, am I diversifying my business. Trading other sales dollars for rug dollars but getting nowhere.
I guess my real question is who should not get in the rug cleaning business?

My Reply slightly edited:

I find that some guys see the money but there has to be more. It takes passion to win at this.

The No Risk Approach

One possibility is to find a quality cleaner that you can sub your work. Then you offer it to your customers and start building your rug business. At a certain point you may decide it is not worth it for you or you may decide it is worth taking a class like Doug Heiferman offers so that you can start to clean some of the easier rugs from the ones you are subbing. Over time you move from subbing all to cleaning all if it works for you.

How long can you keep doing carpets, do you have the money for retirement

Are you thinking about the future

We often see guys in their 50s who realize that the old body is not 25 anymore and they want something that pays well but is not as physically taxing. A big part of it is guys want control over when they work and where they work. I hear comments like they are tired of fighting heavy equipment in and out of houses and up and down stairs. With Rug washing you are in Control.

More tile, hardwood, composite, slate, granite, etc...

Less wall to wall

Another factor is there is less wall to wall carpet being installed today. But there are more area rugs. Cleaners tell me that they go into a home to clean one or two rooms and walk by 10 rugs. Not to mention Carpet Cleaners chasing a smaller number of dollars.

You can not afford to work as cheap as some of your competition and you don't want to either.

Add to this it is easy for a Rug Washer to sell Carpet Cleaning. But it is much more difficult and lower paying for a Carpet Cleaner to sell rug washing as a sideline. In Academy of Oriental Rugs research customers tend to feel if you can clean a Persian rug you can handle any cleaning job better. But if you are a Carpet Cleaner they tend to trust you less and they want to beat you up on price.
Another point is multi-truck operators get tired of hiring and firing and all the time wondering what some yahoo may do in someone's home or even if he is going to show up on time.

Oriental Rugs are not for everybody
But some guys are best suited to be Carpet Cleaning and rugs are not their thing and that is OK too. It is your choice and your future, you decide.

I got a great response from a well known Rug Cleaner Josh Bass:
“Barry O'Connell isn't it funny... Clean 4 bedrooms, LR, DR , FR of w2w and charge 350 or clean 1 rug 9x12.”