Blanco was a compound used primarily by soldiers throughout the Commonwealth from 1880 onwards to clean and colour their equipment.
Soldier of Fortune gift vouchers available to purchase online. Military Style watch with nylon strap. A potted history of web cleaning and Blanco thereof.
Still, there are recollections of even in the late 1980’s of soldiers, sailors and airmen on basic training blancoing away on their issued ’37 pattern webbing and mention the word Blanco to those who did National Service and you will be met with a gritting of teeth and a rolling of eyes!Pickerings the company abandoned it’s powder products – the Sheffield cutlery trade having vanished overseas and the military trade being lost to new equipment innovations but they still continued with the packaging side of the business they had always been involved with, formerly with zinc lined tins that contained the Blanco product but latterly with box packaging. And as with many nouns, it became transformed into a verb – to pipe-clay leather. Supplied by Pickering it was sold exclusively through the NAAFI. The company sadly closed in 2009 after 185 years in business and with it went the last tangible link to Blanco. Pipe-clay was plentiful around the country and was exploited extensively for making pottery as well as clay pipes.
Based in Darlington, County Durham, Genuine Army Surplus is a family-run business with over 45 years of experience in supplying high quality world wide army and military uniforms, clothing and accessories with a large range of rifles, pistols, and footwear. 100 was the paper-wrapped mould only, sold as a refil1 for the tins and cost 1d; Blanco No. A more basic and utilitarian product it would be hard to find and yet there are still many mysteries yet to be unravelled.Some 30 million blocks of Blanco were supplied during WW2 which works out at less than two blocks a year per soldier which suggests that servicemen spent less time cleaning their webbing than popularly supposed!Then there was something of a rationalisation of naming (date unknown and may well have been post-WWII) and ‘Web-Blanco’ became renamed as 97 Khaki Green (Medium), ‘Khaki-Blanco’ became 103 Khaki Green (Light) and Khaki Green No. Great deals on reenactment gear for British WW2. Pickerings were there at the start of the pre-manufactured web cleaning compound era and there at the end.
We have a Super Selection of Genuine army surplus in stock including Army camo netting, Army ammo boxes, Wool Blankets, 24 Hour Ration Packs, Military Basha Shelters, Hexi Stoves, Individual Protection Kits, Sand Bags in stock and ready to post .
They sold it to the local Hillsborough barracks who adopted his product and their extra white webbing was admired and led to it’s adoption by the rest of the army in the 1880’s. For ten or fifteen years a Blanco-pipeclay controversy went on in the barrack-rooms, and Blanco won.The product was sold in cake form shown on this page as well as liquid and paste form in a squeezable tube. Come the 60’s and 70’s competitor products arrive, some like Propert’s which was approved, others unapproved.
For this, they used a preparation made from pipe-clay – a very white clay when fired and ground down.
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Equipment could be kept smart by touching up.Since the at least the late 1700’s the British Army had been whitening belts and other personal equipment. 101 was the mould supplied in a zinc tin complete with sponge and cost 6d; Blanco No.
We have a large range of clothing and equipment from the UK armed forces for sale right here in this section. A later New Zealand 1908 advert also lists Nugget, Blanco, Laura and Lilly White products for whitening boots and shoes.John Needham Pickering, a Volunteer (predecessor of the Territorial) thought his family firm that produced polishing compounds and rouges for the cutlery trade, could produce something better than the traditional pipeclay for whitening the Slade Wallace buckskin equipment the Army then wore. It is owned by Denise Wey who recounts it was given to her by her Grandmother as a keepsake who told her it had always been for whitening (and as a child she always whitened Denise’s shoes from it).
It was first used by the British Army to whiten Slade Wallace buckskin leather equipment, and later adapted to coloured versions for use on the cotton Web Infantry Equipment, Pattern 1908 webbing.Blanco became widely used throughout both world wars. Poncho Liner Ranger Blanket - Woodland US / Dutch DPM camo poncho liner, Used / Supergrade. Everything from Kay Canvas BLANCO White for canvas and leather and Kay Canvas Liquid Blanco 1944 No3 KG Dark (2020 batch) to Kay Canvas Liquid Blanco KG 67 Light Pea Green (2020 Batch).
Denise’s Great Granddad was with the Durham Light Infantry pre-1900, then only a boy (photo below) and her father remembers it being in her Great Grandmothers house, when he was a boy and always used for whitening.Here is an advert from the Evening Post, Wellington, New Zealand 1898 that lists Blanco for White Shoes and Belts.
Pipe-clay was plentiful around the country and was exploited extensively for making pottery as well as clay pipes.
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