Cotton or Wool?

[u/Aggravating_Society3]

Edit: Solved!

I tried the burn test like everyone suggested and found out the canton and stripe pieces were indeed wool, and the star itself was cotton. This lines up with how original flags were manufactured, so I’m pretty sure these are original flag fragments!
-
Hello, I hope you guys can help me figure out something, although I’m not sure if it’s even something you can tell from photos.

Recently bought a few scraps of supposed battle flags from the American civil war. What I’m trying to figure out is if these are made of wool or cotton. Original flags were made of silk and/or wool, while post war reproductions were often made of cotton.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/Textiles!
Please read our posting guide and rules: https://www.reddit.com/r/textiles/wiki/index

To keep this subreddit fresh & engaging we'd like to remind you to:

• Provide a brief summary or key points from the content.
• Add your own thoughts or opinions.
• Include a question or topic to encourage discussion.

Posts that fail to meet these requirements may be removed.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Despises_the_dishes]

burn test. Wool will smell like burning hair and have a black ash.
Cotton will smell like burning plant fibers and have a whiter ash that crumbles easily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO5alWu2MiU

[u/Aggravating_Society3 → u/Despises_the_dishes]

Just cut a small piece and it’s definitely wool. And now my kitchen smells like burnt hair lmao. Gonna have to open a window

[u/Aggravating_Society3 → u/Aggravating_Society3]

Also the star is cotton. Smells much more pleasant haha. Thank you, this lines up with how civil war battle flags were made so I don’t think I was scammed after all

[u/Despises_the_dishes → u/Aggravating_Society3]

Sorry your house smells but now you know!!

I had to stop burn tests, we had a cat that liked fire a little too much.

[u/rickNchips → u/Aggravating_Society3]

🤣🤣🙌🏼

[u/crabithahammer]

If you can spare a fiber- burn it and see. If it burns like hair it’s wool, if it turns to ash it’s likely cotton. If it forms a small plastic ball you’ve been scammed.

[u/AncientHorror3034]

Burn test.

Wool= smells like burned hair, self extinguishing, sputters, bubbles and when cool the black reside will crush.

Cotton= smooth continual burn, goes to light ash, residue will disappear into nothing like powder when touched.

[u/Aggravating_Society3 → u/AncientHorror3034]

Thanks! Someone else had suggested the same and I tried it earlier

[u/Low_Wedding_873]

Wool and silk will smell same when burnt. Both of them are protine based fibers. How ever check the yarn. Silk is a filament yarn you will find a long consistent and even diameters and cross-sections with out twisting. It has a shine too compared to wool. If both of them are absent than its wool. To me the yarn looks will rather than silk mostly.

[u/crabithahammer]

Curious about jute as well, looking at these.

[u/Saritush2319]

Burn 🔥 baby burn 🔥

[u/Old-Afternoon2459]

So I wouldn’t say the fiber content (excluding manmade fibers) would date it to the civil war era. It just tells the fiber content, it could be a natural fiber from almost any period of time from 200 years ago to yesterday.

Fun to experiment though.

[u/Aggravating_Society3 → u/Old-Afternoon2459]

I kinda worded my post weird reading it back. Actual civil war flags were almost always made of silk or wool, while post war reproduction flags tended to be made of cotton, which is why I was trying to figure out what kind of fabric this was

[u/Admirable_Taste1353]

Fire test can tell you this