Stinky

Brett, just a consideration, though I'm not sure how much it'll help… I suspect that if the wool feels fine everywhere else but the shirt, it's probably the tightness of the shirt. It will "stimulate" your hair follicles and skin sensors a bit more, and the tightness will also inherently press & rub the wool further into your skin. A looser fit won't press the material into you so much. I can't remember if the Mondo is a Body Fit piece; it it is, try a non- Body fit &/or a finer gauge/lighter wool. Or just get used to it…

I could be totally wrong, but I seem to recall that what makes people allergic to wool is the natural oil on it, the lanolin… so washing in that could be a double-edged sword; softer, but more allergic potential?

Einstein,
You might want to go easy on the H3O. It is not much different in action from chlorine bleach and actually burns the wool. Both Cl and H3O are oxidizers. A much more effective odor treatment is McNett's Mirazyme, a wash developed for cleaning wetsuits. It is the only thing that will really remove hiker stink without damaging fabric.

I second Mirazyme. It works great and a small amount goes a long way. 1/2oz packets that are easy to take on the trail are avalable.

here are 1/2 oz packs

Richard,

I was referring to X-static fabric but only have it in 6 pairs of liner socks. I can't tell how it would work in a shirt, just can extrapolate (or maybe speculate), which I was hesitant to do.

Someday I will try a X-static shirt.

Vick: I use H2O2 on synths, not wool. And the OTC concentration is very weak, not to be confused with far higher H2O2 concentrations–hard to get unless you own a lab, build rockets, or bleach paper…

And again, over months of use there I see no evidence that OTC H2O2 harms my ployester synths in any way.

Raymond,

I am quite confident you are referring to the Fox River X-Static liner socks at 19%. They are a phenomenal product for odor control and blister prevention!

Some vendors don't even list the X-Static content in their products; they just advertise the product as using X-Static for odor control. Two 1% X-Static nylon examples are the Wigwam Silver Liner Pro socks and the camo fabric sold by Lucy Fabrics. An example of 2% X-Static is the Medalist Silvermax socks. An example of 3% X-Static includes the Medalist Silvermax T. An example of 4% X-Static is the Medalist Silvermax briefs.

Although Merino wool has a lot of advocates for bacteria related odor control, it is not used for that function in any medical environment. By contrast, X-Static based gowns and dressings are common place due to their lab proven effectiveness.

I have used the19% Fox River X-Static liner socks, and now discontinued Medalist 5% X-static silk weight long underwear on expeditions along the coast of Alaska with no perceptible odor after 1 ½ months of constant use.

The lab tests I have reviewed show that 5% class X-Static reduces all bacteria by ~10^2. This seems to be the most cost effective solution for expedition wear. For burn patients and people with large open wounds 8% class reduces all bacteria by ~10^3. There is about a 10^6 improvement at ~ 25% (the realm of the Fox River X-Static liner socks).

Based on some lab tests I did, I find that you can just eyeball a garment and very closely approximate its X-Static content. I am not going to mention any vendors, but the X-Static content claims don’t always match what my tests showed. The ratio of silver weft yarns to normal fabric weft yarns gives you the X-Static %. The warp yarns have never been coated in any garment I looked at.

The following are 10x photos I took of a 3% fabric, a 5% fabric and a 19% fabric to illustrate how you can easily visually ascertain the approximate X-Static content of a fabric.

I see that Fox River sells only socks. Does anyone know who makes high % x-static shirts?

Does anyone know how the silver thread would work in a shirt exposed to hot direct sunlight? Would there be heat transfer/magnification onto the skin that would render such a garmet unsuitable for wearing as an only layer in summer?

I posted in haste then did some searching. I found plenty of SS X-Static Ts. Security Pro USA has the Second Chance SS T for $15. I have one of these that I've nearly worn out. Very cool, fast drying, high SPF, and NO STINK. I really want a LS/No Stink/High SPF shirt. Also found the Medalist site. Their LS T is a very dark color. Anyone with experience with this dark shirt worn as an outer layer in the heat? Any source for other LS X-static Ts?

Rob,

I haven’t tested any of the higher silver content products. The approximately 8% silver products, used most commonly for medical applications, have been effective for me. That said, I just ordered the following $39 product to test.

The best price for a summer synthetic base layer top, with 30% silver, is a Scent Shield for $39

For cooler weather use, the Scent Shield base layers are also available in merino wool and 15% silver fiber. These garments and others can be reviewed on the Manufacturer’s Web Site

A base layers insulation value is negligible regardless of the material type. For exclusive warm weather use, you should size any base layer garment to fit loosely and the lighter the color the better. The weave will block the sun and bugs and the billows effect will facilitate evaporative cooling. Theorectically if the temperature of the fabric is over 93F then the metal strands will make it cooler by blocking the radiation transer to your skin. The fabric temperature will depend more on the color than the ambient temperature.

In addition to use in the medical field, silver ions are used used by the US Military, NASA, and the European Space Agency to control odor-causing bacteria during prolonged outings.

Richard, Thanks for a great reply. I've found your posts regarding staying warm extreamly helpful. This discussion on staying cool and avoiding the stink factor is interesting to me. I have plenty of base layers that do everything I want them to do for summer use except the odor problem. Light wool works great except in really hot weather IMO. Then, even the lightest weight wools are too hot. The Scent Blocker shirt you mentioned is a mid-weight and a dark color. This company also lists a loose fit LS Tee with the silver, but it too is dark gray.

I'm going to search more and contact Second Chance and Under Armour (what is their "Armour Block?)and try to find this elusive, more perfect, hot weather LS Tee.

Anyone else with some tips?

Insport offers some items with X-static (no silver percentage given), look under Running and Military on the Insport website. The running items are available in light colors, but look like they are a snug fit. The military items look like a looser fit, but are only available in coyote brown (which isn't that bad a color)…

Regarding the funkiness of synthetics… Are you worried about the funk that they acquire after you've worn and washed them several times, or the funk you get just from being stinky hiker? I have several TNF Vaporwick tops that I hike and work out in. Even after washing, they have a definite "funk" in the armpit area. I'm going to try washing them in an enzyme wash that's supposed to remove odors (I think it's called Mirazyme). You also might try the washes or sprays that hunters use to remove the scents from their clothing.

I have had good luck with the sekri x-static shirt. Week+ in hot weather without getting particularly stinky. The other treatment that seems to have effect is visa endurance. The nice think about visa endurance is that it's often found in fairly inexpensive garments.

–Mark

Washed the Icebreaker about three more times and still itchy. I have the Sekri 1 longsleeve and it is 3% X-Static. Will be trying it out for a few days soon.

Brett,

From the vendor description it appears as if it is just the underarm panels that are 3% X-Static. Please look at yours and tell us what you see.

I don't have a microscope but it seems to be all the same material throughout.

Isn't 3% rather low?

Ok, well the sekri store (http://www.sekri.org/Merchant2/merchant.mvc) will ship internationally so I’m going to give them a go.

Insport have pretty limited sizes listed in stock (http://www.insport.com/military_main.cfm?main_id=16). Their Level 3 jacket looks like a simple and inexpensive alternative to the Patagonia R2 jacket, which is the only other Polartec Thermal Pro product I know of. I have an R2 fleece vest, and the fabric is fantastic, I just wish it didn’t have the pockets.

Some useful sizing info at http://www.militarymorons.com/gear/clothes.1.html.

Re: Visa Endurance, I can’t find any tops which use this currently.. it looks like the Mountain Hardware eXtend featherweight tops use it, but they don’t seem to be made any more. The new MH synthetics listed on their site have some crab product which sounds similar to Cocona .

The Scent Shield stuff is too short for me. SEKRI makes a SS Level 1 and LS Level 2 that use X-static at the 3% in a long. Insport seems that it will fit in the length but they are getting back to me on how much silver content. Medalist looks to be a good idea also as theirs run about 32" in length at 4% but they are a bit more expensive.

>Re: Visa Endurance, I can't find any tops which use this currently..

These loose fit shirts do, but the sizes are getting kind of picked over.

http://www.botachtactical.com/bltifitshshs.html

S o it seems that the baselayer collection is pretty good for X0static but not so much for something like an R1. Supposedly Insport has something similar that has some X-static on it. Can anyone comment?

Do you mean, are there R1-type XStatic tops? See the Level 2 sekri & insport tops.

Yeah, I think I confused myself on that one. The XL long SEKRI Level 1 long sleeve I have is actually a bit too small for me so I don't think I am going to use it. Weighs about 7.2oz for the person that asked.

Insport is way expensive to maybe Medalist then.

So Richard, I should not go with the silver ion nano stuff but rather the stuff that uses the encapsulated threads correct?

Ok, Sekri Level 1 with 3% XStatic still gets smelly. Otherwise it's a nice synthetic top – very light, deep zipper, high neck. But still that smell.. think at this point I'm going to give up and stick to my merino.