Talk:Art silk

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[edit] Nylon is Art Silk?

art silk is rayon ... what has nylon got to do with it? Victuallers 22:26, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

  • Reply:
  • Uh, Victual... The article's first sentence starts with the word "Artificial silk." The article is therefore about Art Silk (an industry term which is regional) and artificial silk in general... Rayon and nylon were both marketed as silk lookalikes in the early 20th century, according to the sources. The historical accounting is the reasoning nylon is mentioned at all.
  • Furthermore, the "art silk" term is regional... In some areas of India it might always mean rayon... In a rug market in Pakistan it might mean mercerized cotton. It means whatever the merchant wants it to mean.... surely you know that. It is an ambiguous reference to the fact that the retailer or merchant or manufacturer would like to sell fake stuff that sounds like the real stuff.
  • So, no, art silk is **not** rayon when it could mean something else. In a private email I recently had with an Indian retailer, I found out that some art silk is a combination of silk and rayon, or at least that is his claim. The cotton and polyester has sources in the first paragraph. Many sources talk of rayon. And the historical discussion of nylon is because nylon was a direct industrial replacement for silk, made artificially. (By the way, I believe that silk velvet is not normally 100% silk by convention. See [1] That link is from a reputable retailer that explains the content of their product, which has surprisingly little silk unless a person knew this.)
  • Last and not least, there is a redirect from artificial silk to this article... It would be silly not to link artificial silk to art silk! Do you want two articles? I prefer to combine the two ideas. But if so, edit the redirect and this page and make a note at the top that says: "This article is about art silk. See artificial silk for other uses."