Natural Fibers

We always say..."wear natural fibers and you won't get burned". Yup, that's what we say.So I was thinking about this the other day and grabbed bunches of different kinds of fabrics, a candle and Whipping Boy and we headed onto my front porch. Then I found some others materials and continued the experiments...Here is what we found when I held the fabrics directly over the flame, the equivalent to a move gone wrong....Lightweight Cotton/Gauze: up in flames in three secondsMiddle Weight Cotton (like a cheap t-shirt, not really tightly woven):up in flames in 3 secondsTight Woven Cotton (a nice t-shirt):up in flames in 6 seconds BUT once it was up in flames it was hell to put out..it just kept going. At first is smoldered to a little brown mark so we thought it wasn't going to go, then it burst into flames, literally! shocked

We did this a few times just to make certain.Tight Woven Heavy Cotton(Like Khaki pants):I left it there 10 seconds and it didn't go up in flames but after 10 it would've. That was the point at which the brown scorch mark was working through the material.Denim (without frays wink

):held it there for 10 seconds (if you're safety hasn't put you out by then you have big problems anyway). It left little black soot marks that wiped off.Cotton Corderoy (sp??):Held it there 10 seconds. It scorched abit because of the loose fibers being raised up but once it made it past those it didn't go.Wool (Light grade, loose weave):10 seconds until scorch, much like thetight weave cottonWool (heavy grade, like a blanket):Worked better than denimFlax (it tends to be light and airy, like a cotton): 3 seconds and it was historyAdding to this in my editting: Silk (the shiny, light refined stuff):It lasted about 5 seconds before it frizzled into a tiny flame.Raw Silk (the course, heavier one):This held up to a count of 8 seconds before it smouldered fiber by fiber...but it never really went poof.Leather: It doesn't actually burn, it more curls up into this little black roll, and that was the edge of the light weight leather after about 20 seconds (I was really curious with this one). The center never went up.Moral of the story is that not *all* natural fibers are acceptable to spin in. The lighter the fabric and the looser the weave, the faster it goes up.Now, keep in mind that you have about a two to three second grace period before you even catch, and then you have the oh, about one second grace while the fuel residue burns off. After that it's all the fabric. So for all of you who are safeties, you should give no more than 3 seconds warning before you step in. Keep that in mind.Safe spinning to all.------------------Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...https://www.pyromorph.com[This message has been edited by Pele (edited 19 July 2001).]

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK

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