Discuss the wholesale blanks industry: Factory direct, custom labels. You can also use this forum to locate a wide variety of wholesale products including t-shirts, hoodies, mousepads, coffee mugs and other imprintable products.
I would LOVE to find some of these!! About 10 years ago, I was getting much of my blanks from a company called Southern California Tees, in Carpinteria, CA. They've since moved to Oxnard, and changed names, but when they were still in Carp, they used to offer PFD t-shirts. (Prepared for Discharge) I can't remember if they were SCT's proprietary Allsport brand, or possibly Oneita?? anyway, I would be so relieved if I could find a wholesaler who is providing this product. As I recall, they were available in black, and navy. I just recently sent a couple of white tees to a dyehouse in Los Angeles, discharge results weren't as good as I had hoped they would be.
I know that PFD, in today's parlance, stands for prepared for dye. Many years ago, it stood for prepared for discharge. These would be white garments that are dyed with fiber reactive dyes that would allow discharge to occur, getting you back to something resembling white (not natural cotton, as an 'ordinary' black fabric would provide.) I know very little about dyeing, but as I understand it, PFDye fabrics are available to be dyed various colors. I'm guessing that they are a natural cotton color, and not white, before the dyeing occurs.
What I'm seeking is a black tshirt that I can discharge back to as close to white as possible.
add white pigment to your discharge. This will yield a soft discharge hand yet will leave a white print. i sent Rodney a test on a gildan maroon t./ Using Wilflex Discharge with Wilflex PC pigments added. I have not found the PFD dyed shirts as of yet.
I know very little about dyeing, but as I understand it, PFDye fabrics are available to be dyed various colors. I'm guessing that they are a natural cotton color, and not white, before the dyeing occurs.
I think they're white to allow better uptake of dye/more consistent colour.
I haven't bought PFD blanks, but the ones Alternative sell appear to be white, and the ones Dharma sell are described as such.
So you could buy PFD, have them dyed, and then use them for discharge. Lots of effort and expense though - I imagine Richard's idea of adding white pigment would be far better.
I haven't heard of a shirt on the market that is discharge friendly (which certainly doesn't mean there isn't one - Gildan PFD is pretty obscure for example). From what I'm told it's not uncommon to overdye shirts, so what you get underneath might not even be raw cotton.
add white pigment to your discharge. This will yield a soft discharge hand yet will leave a white print. i sent Rodney a test on a gildan maroon t./ Using Wilflex Discharge with Wilflex PC pigments added. I have not found the PFD dyed shirts as of yet.
Yes, out of the samples that Richard ran, the Gildan held the discharge process the best.
It seems like with the resurgence of discharge printing that more blank t-shirt manufacturers would add it to their line. I'm sure some of the private label companies could probably put something together for the right volumes.
Thanks so much for your posts.. I'm actually discharging with a Mimaki digital garment printer, so adding pigment isn't a possibility.
Do I understand correctly that PFD(dye) garments are white? or are they undyed (natural) cotton color? You say that Alternative sells these, I'm familiar with them, but I haven't heard of the other you mentioned, Dharma?
Do I understand correctly that PFD(dye) garments are white? or are they undyed (natural) cotton color?
As I said, "the ones Alternative sell appear to be white, and the ones Dharma sell are described as such". I haven't seen an Alternative PFD shirt in person, so I'm just going by the photo - you'd need to ask them to be sure.
I think in order to get proper uptake of dye the cloth needs to be whitened before it is dyed though - otherwise you get flecks, potentially uneven uptake, etc. So as far as I know (not certain) PFD in general would need to be white rather than natural cotton. In some specific cases (e.g. Gildan PFD from Dharma) I do know it is white, otherwise I just don't know for sure one way or the other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thinkworksdan
I haven't heard of the other you mentioned, Dharma?
Dharma Trading - they're a reseller rather than a manufacturer. I'm not sure how their prices compare to other sources, but they have Gildan PFD (and some other white shirts for dyeing, I didn't look too closely to see if the other brands were proper PFD or just white).
PFD garments (prepared for discharge) 
