I had no idea what some of my fabrics were made from so I decided to use the burn test to help me identity if the swatches were cotton, wool, silk or polyester.
Cotton smells like burning paper and its ashes are soft, fine and turned to dust. The cotton ignites when as the flame draws nearer.
Wool or silk smells like burning hair or feathers. Silk doesn’t burn as easily as wool.
Wool turns black and brittle and can crush between your fingers after being on fire.
Polyester or synthetic fabric smells like chemicals and it turns into hard black lumps. It also curls away from itself and melts.
At the start I thought the yellow polyester corduroy was cotton but I noticed it burnt with a plastic edge.
I thought the velvet wool cord was polyester but discovered it burnt with a burning hair smell and its ashes were black, hard and crumbly, not a plastic ‘blob’.
Originally I thought the red cotton cord was polyester but it smelt like paper, its ashes were soft and it didn’t create a plastic edge.
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