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RickZieger

Anyone know ?

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I think flytire is correct about this being floss. Looks to be rayon, which I personally consider basically garbage when it comes to floss.

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I checked my floss drawer and I actually have two of those boxes, and I did some tests. First I dipped it in acetone to make sure it wasn't acetate. It wasn't. Then I tried to melt it, it didn't melt, it burned like a fuse straight from the end. Does that mean it's silk? I'm not sure. Does rayon melt or burn?

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I'll be interested to learn about this one. The floss's sheen is what makes me thing it is probably rayon...or perhaps some other synthetic.

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33 minutes ago, Mark Knapp said:

Does rayon melt or burn?

Rayon should burn and leave an ash, as the base material is cellulose from wood or cotton.  

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3 hours ago, niveker said:

Rayon should burn and leave an ash, as the base material is cellulose from wood or cotton.  

Gotcha, that's what it must be then. Just for curiosity, I wonder what silk does.

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They say (read it on the internet so it must be true  😜) that it smells like burning hair - silk and hair are both protein based.

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1 hour ago, SalarMan said:

Silk is too expensive to burn...so I'll trust the rest of you to let me know - HA HA HA

I can afford to burn an inch. I'll get some and try.

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I have a spool of floss that's marked "French Silk".  I don't know where I got it, and it's purple.  A spool like for a thread spool.  I'll burn a couple of inches and report on the smell.

 

Edit: I burned a little of the floss.  It burned pretty well (I don't have the vocabulary to describe how it burned, so there it is.) I'm not totally sure this floss is silk, in spite of its marking.  It didn't melt and burned off with little ash.  

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I have a cheap set of floss in package just like that use it all the time. I also have a few rolls of silk floss I bought for a Classic Streamer swap and it is definitely the nicer of the two. I also have some Pearsall's floss but don't like the way it is rolled together. Need to separate it to make it decent to use.

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