What is it made of

WHAT IS IT MADE OF?

Brian Lemin (Editor)

Introduction
From time to time questions get asked about what a particular needle work /
handwork tool is made from. These notes look at the most common confusions
and how to test which material is being used. It specifically excludes wood, as
which wood a tool is made from is for a more specialist approach than I can offer.
It is better investigated through books on the identification of wood.

Bone or Ivory.
This relates mostly to crochet hooks, tatting shuttles and lace bobbins. On the
whole crochet hooks might well be made of either but bone is more common,
tatting shuttles are more likely to be made from ivory and lace bobbins are
unlikely to made from ivory.

Firstly there is a potentially destructive test. Basically bone "burns" Ivory does
not. Put a lighted match to the objects! Ivory will not really be effected by it. It
just goes black and you can wipe it off. ( that is unless you really subject it to a lot
of heat). Bone will have a good shot at burning and will have the flesh smell. The
object might be physically damaged by the experience.
The red hot needle test is less destructive. With this you push the red hot needle
into the object where it will not show. With bone it will enter more easily and
burn with a smell of flesh, with ivory it will be quite hard to push it in and it smells
like the burning caused by a dentists drill.
Basically it comes down to if you want to tell the differences
between bone and ivory, don't bother with hot needle or burn test. For the
person who can't visually tell the difference, the burn test is a good way
to ruin what you have.
always
assume bobbins and sewing tools are bone unless I have *very* good reason to
believe otherwise. >

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Secondly test of the visible differences.

Basically tusks (Ivory) are teeth (incisors from the upper jaw.) They are therefore
made up of dentine as opposed to the softer material of bone.

The visible structure comprises many many minute longitudinal tubes, which
when fresh are filled with oil. It is this oil that gives it the polish and the very
gradual loss with age. Bone on the other hand is has all its "fat" boiled out before
being turned.

So, you should offer the ivory to the light and look for faint longitudinal lines and
then revolve the bobbin , very slowly, through 90 degrees. These lines should, on
revolving, become less pronounced or even disappear from the angle at which you
are observing them. (if the ivory is simulated i.e. casein based compound the
dark/light lines will remain and they are more pronounced on the simulated ivory
You will need to practice this to "see" what the description is saying.

Now to bone.

The characteristic of bone is that it is provided with a blood supply and therefore
has minute pores (which are the channels through which the bone is kept alive)
They look like tiny brown or black spots (or channels depending on the angle of
the turning.

So to sum up. Ivory has longish lines (tubes). Bone has black or brown flecks
(channels) You will need a good light source to see the lines (tubes) on ivory but
the flecks are reasonably visible with a magnifying glass in bone.

Other possibilities for Ivory are Casein type simulations or plastic. Casein will
have more pronounced parallel lines and will be visible at all light angles. Un
simulated plastic will not have the weight density neither the simulated "grain".

Other plastics chip like glass and feel warmer than true ivory

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Walrus tusk is hard to distinguish unless part of the object has a cross section of
the tusk being used. If so the core is granular dentine not hard like the true
dentine.

Main source of information was by Bly. J. Is it genuine. 1986. Mitchell Beazley.

London., but I went to the public library and surrounded myself with books on
antiques.!!!! He explained it best.

Here is another letter that I received.

Since ancient times, ivory was known, used and counterfeited too! Anyway I write
you what I know about the argument.

Ivory
I don' t know any way to distinguish between ivory from elephants, mammoth
(fossil ivory), hippopotamus and sea elephant. The only difference I know is that
ivory from hippopotamus, considered the finest, can only be used for small
objects. Another aspect is that elephant' s fang grows like tree-trunk, forming a
series of concentrical rings (not too regular, often they appear elliptical) that can
be evidenced at low magnification (10-20 x) with a good lens (or better a
stereomicroscope) and lateral light, incident from small angle. This characteristic
can be used to tell elephant's
ivory from other materials.

Artificial Ivory
The rings can be mimed, but they are too regular; there are chemical tests (using
organic solvents) that can tell the difference.

Narwhal tooth (Up to 2 m long, diameter up to 3 cm) It can only be used for long
and thin objects; generally (if the object is not too little) you can see the vascular
canal at one end of the object.

Bone and Horn

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They show (under low magnification, in the conditions of light as ivory)

several nervous and vascular canals (i.e. darker and long strips or
lines). The material is also less compact and elastic, more opaque and
not so heavy as ivory (because they are more porous).

I have microscopic photos of the materials I mentioned, but I don' t

have a scanner to send them to you.

The ""match test"" indeed is quite drastic but definitive (the smell of
burned hair, flesh or plastic is characteristic of horn, bone and
plastic).
The definitive test could be immunofluorescence with monoclonal
antibodies, but I don' t if there is a commercial source and it requires
a complex instrumentation (fluorescence microscope).

Luigi Vecchia.

Bakelite, Tortoiseshell, Horn or Plastic?

Plastic is a material capable of being molded. This covers both
synthetic and natural materials of which this report will only cover the
synthetic
The earliest synthetic plastic as celluloid discovered in mid 1850's but
developed in the early 1870 by John Wesley Hyatt from nitro-cellulose and
camphor. He hoped to find a material for billiard balls. But the celluloid he
found was too brittle, but by the end of the century was widely used for all
sorts of household items including buttons and shuttles.

Bakelite, a phenol compound was discovered by Leo Baideland in 1907.

Dr
Baekeland, in a makeshift laboratory in the back yard stable at his home in
Yonders, New York, was trying to produce a synthetic shellac. He combined
phenol (carbolic acid) with formaldehyde and found the mixture refused to be
poured from his test tube. Because he was not one to throw away a test tube, he

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was determined to clean it. But even with heat and a series of solvents, it did
not work. The material was petrified. Even though he failed to find shellac,
he was excited by what he had found, or as it turned out, the first
thermosetting plastic.

In 1910, Baekeland formed the General Bakelite Company. There are two
types of Bakelite, molded and cast. The early molded type of phenolic resin was
mixed with fillers as wood flour and asbestos for added strength which made it
dark in colour. The cast without the fillers had better decorative and colour
properties and did not require expensive molds and equipment. They were cast
in liquid form, hardened, cooled and converted to goods by machining.

Bakelite became more widely used after the patent expired in 1926 when
other firms began to improve and market it under names especially Catalin. This
newer phenol compound took colour better and was very attractive. It came from
the factory in tubes, rods and sheets of various lengths and sizes. It was then
easily worked, it could be sawed, sliced, ground, drilled, sanded and carved
into intricate shapes. it was then polished in big rolling tumblers. This is
the material we not tend to call Bakelite and it is material of some of the
most beautiful ""plastic"" buttons.

The overall industry made great gains in the 20's when a German chemist,
Hermann Standinger recognised the nature of the substances as giant molecules he
named polymers. From this, the rest of the industry developed, and there
appeared acrylics such as Lucite and plexiglass and then nylon in 1940.
This was sent to me by an Arachne member and acknowledged with thanks.

Tortoise shell

Tortoiseshell is just what it says and it was obtained in a most horrible way.
Basically the tortoise was caught and cooked (baked I think). The heat made the
shell flake off the body. This is the beautiful material we call tortoiseshell. The
tortoise was then released for a year to swim in the sea and recover. It was then
caught again and cooked again so that more tortoiseshell could be obtained. As

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this torture went on, the

tortoiseshell became of finer and finer quality. I don't know at what stage the
tortoise finally gave up the ghost. But I'm very glad that tortoiseshell is now a
banned material (ivory has nothing on it). Having said that, I also think it is a very
beautiful material, and antique tortoiseshell items should be cherished both for
their beauty and the pain that went into them!

Testing

Tortoise is not the easiest material to identify for sure. The surest way might be by
testing with a hot needle. Stuff a needle into an erasure or something, heat with a
candle until the needle is red hot or almost that hot. Then on a place on the inside
of the tool where a mark will not be seen, touch the tip of the hot needle to the
surface. Tortoise, when tested produces an acrid, fishy or seaweed-like smell.

Horn can be identifies by the highly characteristic smell of burning hair or

feathers.

Celluloid smells like camphor, usually a very strong smell. I think you probably
will know the plastic smell.

This information comes from the Big Book of Buttons by Elizabeth Hughes. It was
sent to me by Ann Kovalchick email: woodnspl@[Link]. However Ann wrote the
article on Bakelite and tortoiseshell that is reproduced above.

Conclusion
Certainly we do want to know what our tools are made from, and sometimes this is
difficult. I must say that I shrink form doing the potentially destructive tests, but I
think it is possible to do the red hot needle tests if your really must know (Like to
value it for sale). Certainly do the visual assessments, but for the most part I
would recommend just enjoying your tools for what they are, beautiful works of
art showing the skills of the craftsman or the ingenuity of modern science.

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What is it made of?

(Part Two).

Fabric tests.
Editor. Brian Lemin
Introduction.

In order to add this to the original article on “What is it made from?” I have culled
and combined the information from two published sources and also a technical
contribution from Luigi (and advice from his wife) The two articles were
sent to me by, Tammy ………..
Many thanks to all involved.

Which Test?
I can not emphasise enough the need to avoid destructive testing, therefore visual
and feeling, testing skills should first be developed by those wishing to identify
fabrics.

Of course, we should always try to identify the fabric with a non-destructive test
first. So I will deal with the “Look and Feel Test” first, then the “Break Test” and
finally the “Burn Test.” What follows is a technical comment by Luigi.

Look and Feel Testing.

Cotton: It is soft, inelastic and cool to the touch. If you visually examine
it, it is dull to look at and has short soft fibres.

Linen: This has a leathery (stiffer) feel about it. Visually it has longer
(than cotton) fibres and is more lustrous.
To differentiate further between Cotton and Linen, pull a thread through
your tight finger and thumb. The cotton is limp and the linen has some
stiffness with it. Cotton tears easier than linen and linen is believed to

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absorb a drop of saline quicker than a cotton fabric.

Examine a linen handkerchief, it can be creased easily.
In ancient laces (18th Century), the most used thread was linen, because
cotton was too "woolly" and opaque. Only in the 19th Century the
introduction of a new way of working the fibre (in Italian is called
"mercerizzazione" [presumably “mercerised” in English]- immersion in
caustic soda) allowed the use of cotton for artistic laces.

Wool: Warm, springy, and elastic to touch. Visually it has short soft
fibres.

Silk: Soft, smooth (almost shiny smooth) and warm to touch. It is

somewhat elastic. Visually it looks somewhat lustrous.
In earliest Chantilly laces was used a silk called "grenadine"; tightly
twisted, it was less bright than normal silk, resembling linen. The colours
used were ivory and black.

Rayon: Has a cool feeling, inelastic, but smooth. Does not have the
“quality” feel like silk does.

Break Testing:
Before you break test a fibre you will need to untwist about a foot of it, so
that it resembles its unspun state.

Cotton: It breaks with a snap. But look at the broken ends; they are very
fuzzy short fibres. (You know how difficult it is to thread needle with a
broken cotton end as opposed to a cut end) There will be evidence of the
curl of the twist too.
Linen: Has more resistance to breaking than cotton. The broken ends are
more straight than cotton and the lusterousness can be seen.

Wool: Stretches quite a bit before it breaks. The ends are wavy and
Wrigley.

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Silk: Stretches before breaking, then breaks with a snap. The broken ends
are quite fine and wispy.

Rayon: Really quite strong and inelastic. Almost have to break it not by
pressure but with a jerk. If you moisten it with your tongue then it breaks
more easily.

The Burn Tests

Please remember that this is potentially dangerous. (Like ending up with your
house on fire and all your lace projects and bobbins gone up in smoke!)
Remember too that your kids may be watching and they LOVE to copy you. I do
not want to appear stupid about this but fires really do happen and they can
sometimes happen to you. So please, please, please, do not take short cuts with
your safety.

The key descriptors in these tests are shrink, curl, and melt. The differentiation is
shrink away from the flame or does not shrink away from the flame. Smell also
comes into it.

Before we start the specific reactions of fibres to flame, I offer the following basic
review of the three main groups of fibres.

Vegetal fibres (cellulose): e.g. linen, cotton and rayon: they burn
Animal fibres: (cheratine, and other animal proteins): they don't burn
easily
Artificial fibres: they burn or mainly melt

So here we go. Use a match and slowly bring a few unravelled threads of the
fabric into the flame and see what happens.

Cotton and Linen: Does not shrink away from the flame. Burns with a
yellow flame. Burns well, even quickly. (blazes?) Still burns after you
have taken it from the flame. The smell is like burning paper. There are
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two types of ash that you may see fluffy and grey or fluffy and black (That
shows it is mercerised) Linen could be said to burn slower than cotton if
you are able to judge that.

Wool: Curls away from the flame. Slow to start burning and burns
slowly. The flame flickers, the wool melts a bit and sort of sizzles. It
almost stops burning immediately when the flame is withdrawn. The smell
is said to resemble burning feathers or burning hair and the ash is lumpy
and brittle, quite crushable.

Silk: Pure silk curls away from the flame. Burns slowly and stops burning
when withdrawn from the flame. There is some melting. Smell is said to
be of burning feathers. Filled / weighted silk hardly burns with a flame, It
sort of glows and smoulders. The ash forms a brittle, black crushable
bead. If a piece of silk is burned as opposed to some threads, then a
skeleton of the fabric is left after burning.

Rayon: Does not shrink from the flame. Burns sprightly and with a
yellow flame. It continues to burn after being removed from the flame.
Very little ash. Smells like burning wood.

Acetate: Melts away from the flame. It seems to combine blazing with
melting as the flame consumes it. The smell is of vinegar. The ash is a
brittle irregular blackish bead.

Polyester and Nylon: Shrinks away from the flame and fuses. Burns
slowly with very little or no flame. Ceases to burn when the flame is
removed. The ash distinguishes between polyester and nylon. The
polyester ash is round hard black beads and has a chemical smell. The
nylon ash is also hard round beads but they are gray and are said to smell
like “boiling string beans!”

Acrylic: Fuses away from the flame. Burns and melts rapidly this
continues after the flame is removed. The ash smell is acrid and is a brittle
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black irregular bead.

Microscopic examination
High magnification microscope (100 - 600 x). The fibre must be prepared
untwisting threads, with an apposite needle, and the elementary fibres must be
isolated.
You must prepare a solution of 10 ml of distilled water and 1 ml of glycerol.
A little tuft of the tissue must be posed on a glass slide, then a drop of the water
solution and then a cover slide.

Vision under the Microscope:

• Cotton: a plain and spiralled tape. A central channel can be seen.

• Linen: the fibres are cylindrical with regular enlargements: they resemble
bamboo.

• Wool: the fibres are cylindrical and fully covered with little scales (like a
tile roof).

• Silk: raw silk: a double band (kept together by a protein called "sericin";
worked silk (in Italian "seta cotta"): a single band, very regular and bright.

• Rayon and all other artificial fibres: they are extremely regular; the shape
and diameter of the section depends on the wire gauge

NOTE
Some ancient laces have also metallic threads (generally gold)

Chemical test
The only simple test is based on the solubility of Rayon in acetone. Other tests are
more complex, expensive and require special instrumentation.

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Conclusion

It is a pity to think that most of the fabric that we want to identify is very old or
antique. The look and feel tools must be emphasised and developed by would be
testers. The somewhat lesser destructive test, the break test will also give valuable
clues. So, do try those methods before you start burning potentially valuable
fabrics.

References.
• Terreni V., Amandola G.; Merceologia 2000; Masson; Milano; 1988;
page 467-501; ISBN 88.214.0482X
The Identification of Fabrics is from the
book Antique Children's Fashions 1880-1900, A Handbook for Doll
Costumers by
Hazel Ulseth & Helen Shannon. ISBN 0-87588-192-0, published by
Hobby House
Press, Inc. Cumberland, Maryland 21502, 3rd printing 1985. It is a
cool book
:-)

The Burn Test is from a book called All About Cotton, A Fabric
dictionary &
Swatchbook, written & illustrated By Julie Parker (ISBN 0-9637612-1-
8 the
copyright date is 1993, my book is Second Printing, 1995). This is
volume II
of a set; the other book is All About Silk, rest is the same as above
(ISBN
0-9637612-0-X this book was copyrighted 1991, revised edition
copyright 1992,
and my book is Second Printing 1994.). These books are from Rain City
• Publishing, 7501 43rd Ave, NE, Seattle, WA 98115-5107.

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