Among the many minor hazards the outdoor enthusiasts is bound to encounter in his or her travels, the various burrs that exist concealed in forest underbrush are one of the most irritating. They become embedded in clothing, often poking through fabric and irritating the skin underneath. Making matters worse is the fact that these annoying little hitchhikers are nearly impossible to fully remove from many types of fabric such as wool and fleece.
Above: The sleeve of a fleece shirt encrusted with irritating burdock.
BurzOff
BurzOff is a product designed specifically to remove burs that have become embedded in all kinds of clothing and fabric. Made from recycled material, BurzOff resembles a piece of volcanic rock and has three surfaces of varying abrasiveness. To use, simply rub the stone against fabric that has picked up burs, applying a much pressure as is needed to clean the fabric.
Above: The BurzOff “stone”.
To test BurzOff, I purposely ground burdock into various types of fabric and then gauged how effectively the product rid the clothing of burs.
Simply put, the product worked quite well. It made short work of burs embedded in the nylon fabric of my shoelaces and worked equally as quickly on denim. As expected, additional time and effort was required when using BurzOff to clean burdock from fleece and wool (and a small amount of hand picking was required), but ultimately the product cleared the fabric of burs.
BurzOff does inflict some wear on fabric which will inevitably reduce longevity. However, a little extra wear is preferable to having to discard a garment due to itchy burs that cannot be removed.
Above: A wool sock before and after burr removal with BurzOff.
Fur-Zoff
Also offered by BurzOff is Fur-Zoff, a similar product designed to remove pet fur from fabric rather than burs.
Above: The Fur-Zoff “stone”.
As a cohabitant of house cats, this product was of particular interest to me. One of our cats, Loki, is particularly adept at covering clothing with thick coating of fluffy fur, usually right before I have to leave for work.
Above: Behold, Loki, Destroyer of black sweaters.
The most common tool used to remove pet hair from a piece of clothing is an adhesive lint roller, the usefulness of which is fairly limited. Lint rollers tend to only remove pet hair on the surface of clothing, leaving behind hairs that have become embedded in the weave of a fabric. Additionally, such products are finite and have to be periodically replaced.
Fur-Zoff turned out to be an indefinitely reusable product that efficiently removed stubbornly embedded pet hair, even from fabrics such as fleece which are notorious for retaining pet fur.
Above: A fleece shirt covered with cat hair before and after cleaning with Fur-Zoff.
The bottom line
Ultimately, BurzOff products do what they are designed to do and will be a useful addition to any outdoor enthusiast fond of venturing off the beaten path and into the brush. Additional information on these products can be found by visiting the manufacturer’s website.
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