FAQs

Silk Thread

• How can I tell if one brand of silk is equivalent to another?
• That is a difficult question, given all the labels attached to a silk thread.   I suggest you use something I call weave.   You can see it expressed for example as 23 dtex 16 x 3, 16 x 3, or even 16.   Silkworms have been bred for thousand of years, and a given manufacturer employs a specific species with a specific food source.   In the example (23 dtex 16 x 3), the 23 dtex is a reference to the silkworm the manufacture uses; a single silk filament will be 23 dtex.

  Then what does the 16 x 3 mean?   It means that sixteen individual cocoons or silk filaments have been woven together to form a single strand.   And the 3 means that three strands of sixteen silk filaments are woven together to form a thread.

  So are all 23 dtex 16 x 3 thread for all producers identical?   Well not exactly.  Silk has the ability to stretch before it breaks.   This stretch is called elongation and is expressed as a percentage.   So when the silk producers wind the thread on cards, they apply a tension, thus elongating the thread.   And this elongation affects the thread's final dtex, denier, and weight.   Although this does not seriously affect property difference between silk producers.

• What thread is suitable for making jewelry or string beads?
• It is known that 100 weight, 50 weight, and 30 weight YLI silk threads and not suitable for this application.  However, #8 silk threads can be used for beading applications on material.  So it may be suitable for stringing beads or jewelry.  If not, you may be able to use it by twisting two or more strands of #8 silk thread together.  Until someone tells me, I just do not know the complete answer to this question.
• Can this silk thread be used for fly tying or fly rod eye binding?
• Yes, I have personally used 100 weight Kanagawa silk threads for binding eyes to fishing rods.  And my grandchildren have also used it on their rods beginning with their first fishing rod.  I used a rod wrapping jig and the 100 weight silk.  You just need to take some care with it so as to not snap the thread in the middle of a wrap.  Kanagawa 30 weight and 50 weight silks are also used for this application and are stronger.  These threads work equally well with bobbins.  Do not use the @8 silk thread as it too highly twisted.
• What silk thread is the strongest?
• The short answer from the strongest / thickest to the weakest / thinnest silk threads it is #8 Silk > #30 Silk > #50 Silk > #100 Silk.  But to better understand why, it is helpful to understand some thread terminology.

Weight – is a way of indicating the thickness of a thread. The most common weight system specifies the length of the thread in kilometers required to weigh 1 kilogram.  Therefore, the higher the weight number, the thinner the thread.

Denier – is a weight specification that states how many grams 9,000 meters of the thread weighs.  The greater the denier number, the thicker the thread.  The denier weight system also specifies the number of strands of the specified weight which were wrapped together to make the finished thread.

Tex – is the mass in grams of 1,000 meters of thread.  If 1,000 meters weighs 25 grams, it is tex 25.  The larger the Tex number, the larger the thread.

• What size needle do I needle to use with silk thread?
• That, obviously, varies with the size of the silk thread so while I am at it, I may as well provide some additional information on each silk thread.

• Can I machine wash an application made with silk thread?
• Well you can wash it anyway you want, but I would not recommend it.  My wife tells me to hand wash and drip dry or dry clean anything made with silk thread.  And I trust and listen to my wife.  The internet contains many articles on how to wash silk; so use the online references.