Loden experience

[spannulman]

I’m just back from a holiday in Austria, where i found a decent shop on the village which made their own range of hunting clothing.

I came away with a pair of loden kniebundhose, picture our standard breeks but with cargo pockets on the leg in a grey loden cloth.

The washing label says do not wash, although their website says very gentle washing is ok the girls in the shop said to avoid washing and just brush off mud etc like you would for tweed.

I wonder whether any loden wearers on here have washed their clothes without shrinkage? I think it’ll be the same as tweed- that says dry clean only and i would usually brush them off and maybe dab at a stain but if they were truly honking i would put them in a cold, delicate wash or hand wash them- they’d be fine. I know ghillies who wash theirs on a cold machine wash every week.

I like a crawl when stalking and can make a mess of my trews when gralloching at times so one day i might need to wash these breeks- more than just dabbing off small spots. So to get to my point, does anyone who has loden trews wash them? And does it come out ok?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[finnbear270]

You have any smallish kids?, Wash at your peril.

 

[HonestJohn]

Wore loden since I was 4! Still have and use some pieces. Useless on the hill as it gets dark when wet, but wonderful in a cold winter forest.

Don’t wash it

 

[spannulman]

Wore loden since I was 4! Still have and use some pieces. Useless on the hill as it gets dark when wet, but wonderful in a cold winter forest.

Don’t wash it

Thanks for this. I did think about that, buying ‘steingrau’ clothing for our terrain. In winter between my knee boots and smock a lot of them won’t be that visible.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

I use a lot of loden but do not do the crawling about so just brushing off with a stiff brush works for me.