Info needed: Cleaning a Camouflage net help needed

[Robin Craig]

So, this is a modern ex CF cam net that saw service in Afghanistan.

When dry it doesn't look very temperate but when wet it does.

I have tried washing it wish a hose on a concrete slab, a number of times, this picture shows it recently wet, the dry picture wont load.

Am I being unrealistic? How do I get the dust out of it if I am not?

It is nearly 7 metres in each direction and it isn't lightweight.

It is summer so we are not getting a lot of rain.

What assistance can anyone give please?

[Wayne Hingley]

Did you try submersing it in a big tub of soapy water, and sloshing it around with your hands? Rinse it off the same way. ...or you can tow it around the lake behind your boat.

[Lynn Eades]

Do you need a fishing licence for that?

[Matthew P]

I agree on trying some soap with it. That Afghan dust 'Moon dust' is tenacious stuff. It's super fine, like talcum powder and can get into the smallest crevices. So some soap as a wetting agent to get the water into the smallest crevices may serve to lift the dust out.

Matt

[Robin Craig]

Thanks for all the replies, yes I agree soap has to be part of the proper solution to this problem for sure. I admit I was optimistic that just water would do the job.

This is a large object to clean so I have to borrow a water trough to be able to get it in to and be able to agitate it properly. I was hoping for a quicker result.

Thanks all

[Michael R.]

Originally Posted by Robin Craig

So, this is a modern ex CF cam net that saw service in Afghanistan . . .
It is nearly 7 metres in each direction and it isn't lightweight.

Perhaps it is a British made 6.8 x 6.8 metre BRIDPORT Industries product dated about 1991, purchased for Canadian DND use? DND also purchased camo nets from Sweden.

Robin, I am going to take the piss out of you... ? “saw service in Afghanistan”. OMG! Really . . .
My camo nets are pretty dusty too! How would I tell if the dust on mine is from Afghanistan... or CFB Petawawa.


Have you considered a local service that washes horse blankets ? Commercial, large load washing machine?

[rob love]

Use your bath tub. Make sure the significant other is away that day.


I have always found that those nets can get quite dry and crinkly. Try spraying a small portion with some armourall and see the difference that makes to the material. I have done that to the vehicle tarps when they have aged and it makes a world of difference.

[Jordan Baker]

My go to source for all things knowledgeable these days is YouTube. A quick search found this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOwTN4-n1I

[James P]

Originally Posted by Michael R.

Perhaps it is a British made 6.8 x 6.8 metre BRIDPORT Industries product dated about 1991, purchased for Canadian DND use? DND also purchased camo nets from Sweden.

Robin, I am going to take the piss out of you... ? “saw service in Afghanistan”. OMG! Really . . .
My camo nets are pretty dusty too! How would I tell if the dust on mine is from Afghanistan... or CFB Petawawa.


Have you considered a local service that washes horse blankets ? Commercial, large load washing machine?

Agreed, dust is dust. I am also of the mind that contaminated stores like canvas and cam nets would be destroyed and not returned to Canada. Just looks like any other dried out and dirty cam net to me.

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Is it dust or weathered, sun baked surfaces on the plastic giving the appearance of dust? Water would smooth that over and make it look fresh...until it dried.

[Michael R.]

Originally Posted by James P

Agreed, dust is dust. I am also of the mind that contaminated stores like canvas and cam nets would be destroyed and not returned to Canada. Just looks like any other dried out and dirty cam net to me.

Based on a few tell-tale clues, it looks like a recent GCSURPLUS disposal item. A whack of them went through CFB Kingston... many, many more through CFB Downsview, in apparent error when they were shipped there from Pet.

A slow holiday Monday in the Great White North ... during the dog days of summer . . . with fek all else to do but talk about the life and times of a cam net that may have travelled more then we ever wished to.

A Remote Weapons System equipped TLAV traveling under camo netting shade...

[rob love]

The only cam nets I saw in KAF were used for patio shade. I saw both arid and temperate nets kicking around.

I stowed cam nets on the LAV3 monument here in Shilo, and got the remark from a few of the Afghan veterans that they never really had or used them.....things were just too mobile.

[Robin Craig]

Michael R I don't mind you making fun of me, I have broad shoulders. I know you mean no harm, being called out is fair

I am surprised that you did however, as I thought you knew me better. I don't usually say something these days without provenance, but no never mind.

The net came to me from a former tire fitter civvy who was in theatre on contract (for several tours) and is even known to Rob Love. He had it from camp, the dust inside the wire is the same as outside the wire.

Yes it is a Bridport net and have the same label. The former tire fitter now works with me and we trade stuff, he got a crappy trailer that was part of a deal I didn't want and I got the net that he didn't want but I did. Fair exchange is no robbery in my books.

Thanks for everyone's help.

[Darrell Zinck]

Originally Posted by rob love

The only cam nets I saw in KAF were used for patio shade. I saw both arid and temperate nets kicking around....

And one Arctic pattern one on KAF, as I recall. In '07 it was over the patio of the "KAF,eh" (love the name) by NCE. I often wondered how exactly it got there!

regards
Darrell

[Michael R.]

Originally Posted by Robin Craig

Michael R I don't mind you making fun of me, I have broad shoulders. I know you mean no harm, being called out is fair
I am surprised that you did however, as I thought you knew me better. I don't usually say something these days without provenance, but no never mind.
Thanks for everyone's help.

Asking the question how I would know if mine had Afghanistan dust ... appears to be answered. ��

[Ed Storey]

Here are a few photographs from 2011 showing how key facilities were camouflaged with nets in Kandahar.

[Ed Storey]

The Arctic Nets seemed quite popular in Kandahar. This was was my office and wheels for five weeks in April-May 2011. Check out the cargo in the back of the M Gator.

[Ed Storey]

Here are a few images from FOB MSG in May 2011 showing net usage and the tourist who took the photographs.

[Ed Storey]

I don't know how important these nets were to the Crown but I did work a 'gentleman's agreement' for one of the arctic nets which was being used to screen a rec area and had it shipped back to Canada with all of the other Op KEEPSAKE museum material. The idea was to save one that had actually been used in theatre for a rec area which I thought perhaps in 50 or 100 years from now it might be kind of significant. I wasn't privileged enough to have access to the material or have a say in its distribution once the three sea containers of collected stuff got back to Canada so unfortunately I don't have any idea which museum got it or what they did with it once it landed on their lap.

[Michael R.]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

I don't know how important these nets were to the Crown but I did work a 'gentleman's agreement' for one of the arctic nets which was being used to screen a rec area and had it shipped back to Canada with all of the other Op KEEPSAKE museum material. The idea was to save one that had actually been used in theatre . . .

Cool 😎

It looks like there are at least two now, Robin has one.

That is it! I am never washing mine. Who knows... one day someone might track the serial number down and find it on a shipping document showing it being returned from away.

[rob love]

I spent considerable time cleaning, and conditioning tools, tool kits, and other materials for return to the supply system during my last tour in KAF. Some of the stuff was sold off in theater, and some of it was put into sea containers and sent home. Imagine my surprise to see some of those items about two or three years later up for sale on CADC, still with the silver tags attached. The costs of returning the materials to Canada had to have been outrageous.

[Matthew P]

Wait there were Canadians in KAF Next one of you is going to tell me you were stationed at Graceland.

Matt
(2 years civilian HVAC tech out there)

[Ed Storey]

Rob, you looked like you were having so much fun cleaning the tools when I visited you in KAF. Sadly I could not convince you to pose for a photo.

[rob love]

I cannot count how many tool kits I checked and re-assembled. Veh tech static, vehicle tech field, mat tech, weapons tech, metric supplements, veh tech heavy duty, then two different kinds of westward kits. Then they found another 10 or 12 brand new/never issued snap on/genius kits that were in a sea can, and had to be assembled, deviation slips made up, and turned in.



At one point I had a 40 foot sea can filled to 2 levels with tool kits for return. Then, when a bunch of kits did not make it in time from Canada for the teams to use for the preparation of vehicles to go back, they opened the container and issued all the tool kits that I had so carefully done all the prep work to. This is known as librarian syndrome, where a librarian gets all the books put away on the shelves, and then don't want anyone touching them lest they mess them up.



I worked right up into the last afternoon that I was there trying to make up just one more kit....if I had another week I could have finished the job.

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Ed Storey

Sadly I could not convince you to pose for a photo.

Nothing personal Ed, I am just funny that way. I have had requests by papers like maple leaf to do stories on me, heck, they even offered me my own page. Told them every time I was not interested.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Robin, will it fit in a cement/concrete mixer??? Maybe rent one and use as a makeshift washing machine?

Or go to a retirement home or hospital and ask if they can run it through the industrial dish washer?? (one with a conveyer)

Alex