Fabric burn test

Trying to determine if this is silk or polyester charmeuse. Tell me what you think after reading these properties of both:

Polyester
Burns or melts? melts & burns
Retreats from flame? yes
Smell? icky sweet chemical smell
Residue? hard creamy color bead, may be dark if burnt for awhile Misc? black smoke, melting polyester drips
Polyester is a polymer produced from coal, air, water, and petroleum products. Polyester melts and burns at the same time, the melting, burning ash can bond quickly to any surface it drips on including skin. The smoke from polyester is black with a sweetish smell. The extinguished ash is hard.


Silk
Burns or melts? only burns
Retreats from flame? yes
Smell? Burning hair, feathers or meat (silk does not have as strong an odor as the other animal fibres)
Residue? dull black hollow bead which crushes easily to grit Misc? self-extinguishing
Silk is a protein fiber and usually burns readily, not necessarily with a steady flame, and smells like burning hair. The ash is easily crumbled. Silk samples are not as easily extinguished as cotton or linen.


What say you?

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• silk
• burn
• fabric
• polyester
• charmeuse

[kmcscott9]

No, there was water in the pot. :)

[CharmyCupcake]

I once accidently ironed sythetic satin with the iron for a bit too long and it also gave off a chemical sweet smell, it was really gross and the satin got stiffer which was awesome because i loved the feel and look it gave but it really wasn't what I was looking for.

[silkybearAK]

It would help in making a correct determination if we knew what, if any, smell was present during the burn test. It is not silk. Once the flame was removed, silk would stop burning.

My guess is that you burned a rayon or similar fabric as there was no dripping that would have been present with a poly based fabric. Real silk would also have produced a burned hair smell.

[vivalepoire2]

I'd agree, if it was between Silk and polyester, it's probably silk. Polyester has very dark smoke, and melts and burns at the same time. You should examine the ash too, because if it readily sticks to any surface, that's a characteristic of polyester ash. If its easily crumbled, it's more likely silk.

[sergeanthappybunny]

and there's no smoke

[sergeanthappybunny]

I'm pretty sure it's silk because it burns slowly with a steady flame. And I don't see signs of melting. usually polyester melts and drips.

[RlyRawr]

Wow, that was really interesting. :D

Did the pot burn also? I was going to test something like this for my science fair project.