Is it wool?

[treadlightly]

Folks,

I bought a piece of tweed-like cloth from a charity shop the other week.... trouble is, I suspect its not wool.

It has a soft handle and it kinda feels wrong. I then tried burning a thread of it and one of some harris tweed I have. While the harris tweed was fire resistant and gave off that familiar burnt wool smell, the other thread burned far too easily and smelled very different.

I feel pretty sure its not wool or a wool blend with a lot of nylon in it. Am I right do you think, or is there any other way of testing whether something is made of wool?

thanks for any help

 

[Matt.S]

When you burned the supect fibres did they melt?

 

[treadlightly]

No. the thread burned readily and the charred remains were brittle afterwards, but it didn't melt. Could be lots of cotton in there possibly?

When you burned the supect fibres did they melt?

 

[Toddy]

Sounds like a wool/polyester mix to me.
It makes a nice cloth, one that doesn't 'sag' even if the wool isn't slightly felted.
http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp

I suppose the real issues are, "Is it still showerproof ?", and, "Is it spark proof ?".
Only way to find out is to try

cheers,
M

 

[treadlightly]

Sounds like a wool/polyester mix to me.
It makes a nice cloth, one that doesn't 'sag' even if the wool isn't slightly felted.
http://www.fabrics.net/fabricsr.asp

I suppose the real issues are, "Is it still showerproof ?", and, "Is it spark proof ?".
Only way to find out is to try

cheers,
M

Agreed, those are the two issues for me and I'll put it through its paces.

 

[Toddy]

Best of luck with it

The showerproofing can be dealt with quite easily if it's not very good, but the spark proofing isn't so straightforward.

Just the luck of the draw sometimes, but I've found some very good mixed fibre fabrics.

cheers,
M

 

[treadlightly]

The showerproofing can be dealt with quite easily


You mean with lanolin? Will it work with a wool mix? I guess it will work but not so well as the fabric is only part wool?

 

[treadlightly]

I tested it for waterproofness with a quick dunk under the shower and was really surprised at how well it performed. The material beaded up quite a bit initially and even after quite a while under the shower, water did not come through it.

In fact it did much better than my harris tweed fabric which did not bead and was much more porous.

 

[Toddy]

Excellent

You might have gotten hold of high end furnishing fabric. That doesn't mean it's not fit for clothing, just that it will have been pretreated to make it stain (and liquid) resistant as well as passing the match test safely

Nice one

cheers,
Toddy