80/20 vs 100% wool

[dabberty]

Last year I was a bit tired of the 100% vs the 70/30% or 80/20% discussions, mostly from people just repeating what they heard or read somewhere.
So I did a burn test on my 70/30% and also on the 100% wool blanket, with some red hot coals from the fireplace.
Both of them where scorched a little, nothing really visible, no real damage, so for me it is clear that both are just fine.
I'm not worried about sleeping under either of them next to a long fire again.
(somewhere on my blog i have some video's of it, but nothing spectacular)

I could imagine that if you sleep next to the blazing hot fire, and some aliens fly buy and beam the fire up and then drop it on you, that you would have maybe a minute longer before you burn to death....

 

[Toddy]

It's more that it melts holes rather than little scorched patches.

Having worked both with bushcrafters, and re-enactors (live fire black powder, as well as women working around the cook fires) the differences are noticeable.

At the end of the day though, the quality of the wool and the weave are still the most important bit of the mix.

M

 

[dabberty]

It's a good thing then that I don't throw black powder on my campfire when i sleep next to it

 

[Jared]

A whole salmon cooks very well in a sink full of boiling water. Just keep it topped up from the kettle.
Don't think I'd do it in the dishwasher; not keen on chemically soapy additives and rinsing agents in the dinner I'm feeding folk.

Thought you were meant to vac pack it first, sous-vide style.

 

[Toddy]

It's a good thing then that I don't throw black powder on my campfire when i sleep next to it

Doesn't need to be black powder, just a persistant ember. It's simply that the reenactors are busy in daylight and we can actually see the damage clearly.

M

 

[Toddy]

Thought you were meant to vac pack it first, sous-vide style.

We didn't have vac pack when I was a child, but my big brother worked the salmon fishing on the Tay during the Summer holidays from University, and we got whole salmon.
They were cooked in the big wally sink (folks call them Belfast sinks now I believe). Lightly coiled into a soft circle and boiling water poured over and around them. Took four big kettle's full to do a big fish. By the time the last kettle of water went in the fish was pretty much cooked.

M

 

[Herbalist1]

Hi folks,
i recently picked up a jacket secondhand but like new. It's very warm having a padded inner but the outer is wool mix. Unfortunately only 40% wool, 52% poly 8% other fibres.
I use a lot of wool round fires for obvious reasons but I'm guessing this new jacket is going to be way too low on wool to be useful in this respect ie. Resistant to sparks.
dont have any experience with mixed fibres round fires but like many of us, I'm sure, I have managed to melt spark holes in synthetics!!
any thoughts! Thanks

 

[mrcharly]

My thoughts are that any jacket used around fires, grinders etc will end up with burn marks.

FWIW, I have some ex-army goretex salopettes and jacket; they've proven to be surprisingly resistent to welding and angle-grinding sparks

 

[Twodogs]

Mixed fibre content is generally not too bad - the poly adds a bit of wear resistance without detracting too much from the performance of the wool content.
If it was my smock I would buy the mixed wool/poly without worrying

Yep that how I look at it