Thread: Differentiate Linen from Cotton?

I have recently begun to acquire old strops with second elements. Some are obviously fire hose covering. Some are hard and some are soft and at least one gets stiff and hard when wet.(I don't know how else to say it)

Is there some means to know whether a cloth strop is canvas, cotton, or linen, or something else? DON'T TELL ME TO LICK IT! It ain't gonna happen to my hones it ain't goin to happen to my strops.

First of all, a little bit of info on the separate types:

Cotton comes from the boll of the cotton plant. It is cheaper to produce than linen. It's fibres stretch more than those of linen. Like linen, it becomes stronger when wet - by up to 20%. Before processing the fibres range from 80% - 90% cellulose, rising to 99% cellulose after processing.

Linen is made from the fibres of the flax plant (common flax or linseed, genus Linum). It is one of the oldest fibre crops known, going back to ancient Egypt. It is stronger than cotton and does not stretch as much. It is more durable than cotton and has a built-in resistance to decay. Unlike cotton, its weave is fairly equal, that is the warp and weft threads are equal in weight, so it is less likely to expand and contract in the same way as cotton. Interestingly, its strength - already high - increases by 10% when it is wet - hence it's use in early fire-hose. Early flax fire hose was unlined, but later hose was lined with rubber latex (e.g. Richards Ltd Fire Hose of Aberdeen, c1800) and later it was lined on the outside. On its own, it produced a strong, lightweight hose that increased in strength when it got wet and as the fibres swelled it became more watertight - it was certainly an improvement on the heavy stitched or rivetted fire hose that it replaced!

Canvas isn't really a very descriptive term - it doesn't really refer to a specific material. Canvas can be used to describe a heavy-duty fabric that is made from either cotton or linen! Historically though, it was made from hemp, i.e. the fibres from the cannabis sativa plant. There are basically two types of canvas, both of a plain weave (rather than a twill weave - denim is an example of a twill weave). The first is plain, the other is called duck. Duck is more tightly woven than plain canvas. There are also 10 grades of cotton duck, #1 being the lightest, #10 the heaviest. The older type canvas was made from linen and had a brownish colour, and a high tensile strength. To differentiate between the two, canvas made from cotton is often termed 'cotton-canvas'

How do you tell them apart? With difficulty! The weave in cotton, for example, can be quite knobbly and thick as in the old style barber strops where they filled in the cavities of the weave with soap or whiting, or very fine, like a bedsheet. The thicker stuff was woven in a tubular form (a lot was used for lamp wicks) or as narrow strips. The finer sort was hardly ever woven into tubular form, or narrow strips, it was often stitched at the rear, sometimes with an internal liner/stiffener of some sort so as to avoid the line of stitching where it was joined.

Linen was either highly processed to produce a very fine cloth - again, similar to a bedsheet, and bleached. This type is hard to tell from cotton that has been finely woven. The easiest type to identify is the less-processed type that has a slightly more open weave with a fibrous nature and a light brown/grey colour. However, this sort of material is very similar at first glance to canvas-linen. The main difference is that canvas-linen often has a blotchy look and appears a bit more finely woven than the less processed linen, and is often thinner - bedsheet thin, and not woven in long narrow strips, so it is often joined at the rear to make a narrow strip.

Given finely woven examples of cotton, linen and canvas, that have all been bleached and fully processed and of a similar weight, it would be very difficult indeed to identify which was which without having handled examples in the past yourself. Possibly a microscopic examination of the fibres from each would be called for in order to identify which plant they came from!

Regards,
Neil

Well after a waltz around the web and prolonged strop rubbing, I believe I have a method. The ends of these strops aren't finished as in they are fraying or frayable. The cotton is likely the the fuzzy fraying kind. Most like cutoff denim it frays into the warp turning to fuzz and the weft into hanging threads. I think I got the terms correct.

The linen frays but quite differently. It is a more orderly process of very straight warp fibers without any fuzzies and the weft stays quite tight not leaving the matrix easily but mostly intact when it does. There is also a markedly different feel to them which I would describe a soft and fuzzy(cotton) and slick/smooth(linen).

I am still searching for a burn test as a sewing friend told me there is a distinct odor difference.

You should try licking them...