Flame safety of kilt fabrics.

[tundramanq]

I camp a lot and wear kilts - usually 100% cotton around the campfire.

Looking into kilt fabric flameability opens up a bag of variables with no one simple answer. This is what I gathered on the hunt-
The most important variable is the fiber content. It is inherant and permanent. Treatments are easily damaged or stripped by improper laundering:

Silk is the most flammable of all fabrics.

Plant fibers: cotton, linen, hemp etc. Also to some extent rayon types, which are derived from wood (brand name: Viscose). These catch fire quickly and brutally, flame energetically and spread fast. On the other hand, they have an excellent quality in clothes: they tend to fall away from the body. The residue is just ashes. Rayon tends to be the most flammable.

Animal fibers: wool, alpaca, mohair, silk etc. These have a tendency to smolder, so that a fire that one thought was out comes up again. But they don't catch fire easily, in fact wool is probably the best fire-resistant fiber ever. They don't flame much, and they also fall away when burning.

Synthetic fibers: nylon, polyester, etc. These are nominally fire-resistant, which is a good thing, they delay the catching on fire when exposed to an open flame. But they smolder much more than animal fibers, and armchair can burst in flames after hours of nurturing a cigarette butt. And they have a heinous problem: they melt as they burn, and they stick, particularly to skin. Another very nasty thing is that they produce thick toxic smoke which kills people from axphyxiation when present in relatively small quantity. Polyester is a bit more fire-resistant than nylon. Acrylic is by far the most easly ignited of this group but still more resistant than say cotton. Moacrylic is almost flame resistant. It is designed and manufactured to possess flame retardant characteristics. Acetate is almost as flameable as cotton if untreated.




Then the combinations - they generally combine the worst properties of both (or more) constituents. For example cotton poly blends. It flames vigorously and sticks to you.

Flame retardent coatings work but close attention to care must be used as the tend to loose effectiveness quite easily and some are toxic.

Another aspect is the treatments the fabrics get for various reasons to improve hand, sheen,pleat holding properties and durability and maybe flammability.

Texture is an important ignition factor - the fuzzier it is the more prone it is to catch fire and spread rapidly.

Thickness of the fabric - thicker is better. Think burn a sheet of paper, then try to burn a book.

The safest is tight woven wool - ( the fuzzies will singe off ).
The worst seems to be fuzzy acrylic.

[Tobus]

Animal fibers: wool, alpaca, mohair, silk etc. These have a tendency to smolder, so that a fire that one thought was out comes up again. But they don't catch fire easily, in fact wool is probably the best fire-resistant fiber ever. They don't flame much, and they also fall away when burning.

I would imagine that the fire-resistance of wool is a function of how much natural lanolin is left in it. I've read that raw wool (usually when bundled after shearing) is an extreme fire danger. One little bit of flame can cause a massive raging fire that burrows down into the bundles, making them hard to put out because the lanolin also sheds water!

The wool we use for kilts, obviously, has been processed to the extent that it has very little lanolin left in it. But other wool garments from yarn or thread that's more raw could be a bit more prone to fire.

Synthetic fibers: nylon, polyester, etc. These are nominally fire-resistant, which is a good thing, they delay the catching on fire when exposed to an open flame. But they smolder much more than animal fibers, and armchair can burst in flames after hours of nurturing a cigarette butt. And they have a heinous problem: they melt as they burn, and they stick, particularly to skin. Another very nasty thing is that they produce thick toxic smoke which kills people from axphyxiation when present in relatively small quantity. Polyester is a bit more fire-resistant than nylon.

You didn't mention it specifically, but acrylic is one to watch out for. Many of the low-grade budget kilts are made from it, and some members here have horror stories of their acrylic kilts catching fire and going up like torches. It's not even nominally fire-resistant. Scary stuff!

[tundramanq]

Good point on the wool Tobus. I caught the serious Acrylic omission too and fixed it while you were posting - LOL On the flammability scale its half way between cotton and all the other synthetics - nasty fuzzy stuff. The easyist way to play human torch without gasoline.

[tundramanq]

The horse has the bit in his teeth. Have found more and added to the OP.