Washing with Urine

This is part of my Tegle Recreation to recreate a period piece of tablet weaving while comparing period methods to modern ones by using multiple combinations of materials and methods and seeing how they impact the finished piece

For the period method of washing my fleeceI decided to use the stale urine method of cleaning fleeces instead of using handmade soap, soapwart, pennyroyal, or other, non-bodily-fluid-based options for 3 reasons: 1. stale urine was incredibly common across multiple cultures and time periods and so while other options may be argued to be period, this seemed like the most documentable and likely option (Scott 258, Rogers "Cloth" 39, Munro 184, Rogers "Textile" 1720). 2. while heated methods exist, it can be done with a no-heat method, which meant less chance of accidentally felting my fiber and less guessing about temperature and timing - simply leave it in the urine-mixture and let sit until it reaches the level of grease that I want. 3. Morwenna O'Hurlie had done some very cool experiments with using urine (and rainwater too) as ways to wash fleeces and kindly agreed to answer a ton of questions about the process she used.

How the process works: the alkaline of the stale urine combines with the grease and salts present in the fleece to create effectively a soap, similar to mixing ash water and tallow. A more stale urine is more alkaline, so the urine age does impact the finished product, and there is much folklore regarding the differences between men and women's urine and the results created when using for washing, but to my knowledge no modern comparisons studies have been executed yet on this topic.

What I Did: I collected urine for about a week and a half to have enough to fill a 5-gallon bucket about 2/3 full. I then let it sit outdoors until it smelled strongly of ammonia, about another 5 days. As the exact methods used in period are unknown, this was based on the experiments of other fiber artists who have experimented with this process (such as this student's experiment and the incredibly awesome work by Morwenna).

5 gallon bucket, roughly 3 gallons full. Shetland bag on the left, Polwarth to the right. The split fleeces in bags plus a very confused cat.

I took my two fleeces, the Shetland and the Polwarth, split them each into equal piles by weight and placed them into mesh laundry bags to keep them separate. I wanted to use the same bucket and liquid for both to keep the results as controlled as possible in case my diet affected the resulting urine. I then set it to wait for 48 hours.

Left: Immediately after placing in bucket, urine wash was mostly clear. Right: After 72 hours the lanolin had washed out into the urine, creating a thick, opaque liquid.

After 48 hours the Shetland was close to where I wanted it to be but not quite, but the extra lanolin in the Polwarth still left it with a substantially a greasy feel. I think if the low-grease Shetland had been there on its own it may have been enough time at this point, but with the two together I decided to let both sit for another 24 hours before I checked again. The Shetland was lovely, soft and easy to work with but not greasy, and the Polwarth still had a bit of grease to it. I decided to pull both at this time to show the difference in using the same method with two types of fleece. Something I also found interesting - the nylon mesh bag containing the Shetland was still bright white but the Polwarth picked up a brown/gray tinge that I believe was caused by the extra grease in the Polwarth. After a total of 72 hours the fleece came out much whiter, cleaner, and less greasy, just as if I had washed them with water and soap in a modern method, but with a very soft hand. It was also very interesting to see the changes to the urine wash. At the start it was clear and thin, but after 72 hours the removal of the lanolin from the fleece had turned the wash into a thick almost goo, almost identical to the results of a first round of a hot water and soap bath for a fleece but even more concentrated. The lanolin was clearly mostly removed from the fleece despite the lack of heat or soap.

After removing the wool from the urine it needed to be thoroughly rinsed, but my tap water is treated with chlorine and such and I did not want to potentially impact the results chemically. Fortunately we have a pond in front of our house that is spring-fed and protected, so I washed the fleece there. Once the water ran clear and the smell had mostly dissipated I then brought the bags inside and laid the wet fleece on towels to dry.

Results: Once dry I was very pleased with the results of the urine - the fleeces were whiter, softer, and not greasy but with a lovely hand. I have since washed my control fleeces using the common modern method of a hot-water and dish-soap method, and the initial result is that I like the resulting fleeces much less - the Polwarth got slightly felted despite taking care to avoid agitation and temperature changes and the Shetland lost some of its softness. It also is much more labor intensive - needing to do multiple water changes while being careful to avoid agitation/changing water temperatures and I needed to disinfect a third of my kitchen due to washing it in my sink. I will say I think more vegetal matter seemed to be dislodged into the modern method though. Once the modern-washed fleece dries I will update this page with pictures comparing the unwashed, urine washed, and hot-water-soap washed results.

Something interesting, I have a mild lanolin (the grease in wool) allergy that means I often get slightly red hands when working with unprocessed wool. The Shetland, despite still being incredibly soft and needing almost no oil for combing, did not give me the slightest reaction. The Polwarth had just a hair more grease to it but still only made a few fingers on my working hand slightly pink after substantial contact. I don't have the chemical background to understand the reasoning, but I found this result to be quite interesting!