I have a friend who has an old fire hose which appears to be in pretty good condition. It is stamped as "Linen EX", so I know that it is linen, but how do you tell the difference between cotton/canvas linen and flax linen? I don't want to go through the bother of making a cotton linen strop because I have a Kanayama branded one that fits that ticket that came with my 80000. It is very good, but I just gotta have a flax linen strop to round out the stable, so to speak. Any help in identifying flax vs cotton would be appreciated.
How To Tell The Difference Between Cotton and Flax Line Fire Hose
- Thread starter hobber
- Start date
The hose I was able to source has Linen EX and 1964 stamped on it, it is very stiff and has a rough texture. The hose will be un-lined, mine has (down the center) on the stamped side an orange - red line bracketed by blue lines woven in.
When you look closely the fibers they have a light golden color and they have a sheen, quite different from the matt cream white color of cotton. This is what raw unwoven flax looks like, light golden w/a slight sheen.
It's quite a tedious process to properly clean dry and work in this material to get a good strop out of, some think it's worth it though.
When you look closely the fibers they have a light golden color and they have a sheen, quite different from the matt cream white color of cotton. This is what raw unwoven flax looks like, light golden w/a slight sheen.
It's quite a tedious process to properly clean dry and work in this material to get a good strop out of, some think it's worth it though.
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks, FrankC. I have seen un-dyed linen fabric and it is as you state, however with these old hoses, with the layers of grime that is on them, it's just tough to tell. I was hoping that there is some other way to tell other than color.
If you have a decent loupe you may be able to see with that.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thank you, sir! This helps! I have a jeweler's loop and should be able to tell now.
The characteristics are much easy to see with a microscope if you have access to one, but a good loupe may get you there.
Similar threads
