I have bought quite a bit of what I thought was sil-nylon (couple of shades of green and couple of shades of gray along with a bolt of white,) but after recently getting a Patagonia Das Parka and a Kifaru Woobie (both ripstop DWR's) I noticed that most of the green & gray stuff felt like the ripstop DWR material. I had mostly used it to make stuff sacks and pack covers along with a tarp I made out of it which had been exposed to light rain and did ok, but when I took a sample of the gray & green awhile ago and poured a puddle on to each with a paper towel underneath it puddled then soaked through in less than an hour (similar to a Patagonia DWR windshirt I have) while a section of known sil-nylon tarp I tried the same test on is still holding the water hours later. So any ideas on what the green & grey stuff is? Momentum maybe? Is this stuff good for making wind shirts & quilts/sleeping bags out of?
This is off the dollar rack at Wal Mart so like most everything else it is labeled as remnants of unknown origin or something of the sort. I have plain jane polyester stuff and the feel of the material isn't the same. This has the sheen and slippery feel (both sides) of most stuff I have that I know to be sil-nylon, but then again it also feels very much like a couple of rip-stop nylon pieces I have that have DWR coatings. About the only difference is that it isn't as crinkly as Equinox or Golite sil-nylon, but then again it isn't a lot different on that point than a Kifaru paratarp I have either.
Registered: 01/10/06
Posts: 679
Loc: Central Texas
Sorry, Charlie.
There are a couple of things you can do to keep from getting burned. One is to order swatches of material from someone so you have a known fabric for comparison. owfinc.com has a good selection. The second thing is, you can do a suck test in the store. See if you can suck air through the fabric. You can feel air come through uncoated fabric - whereas it might hold a small puddle of water for a while due not to DWR, but to the lubricants used during weaving.
I've found silnylon at Wallyworld only once (many claims to the contrary may be like your experience) and it was a rather heavy, strangely woven stuff. Not what I am used to. It might work for a pack. Yeah, that's an idea.
If it's DWR nylon, once you make something out of it, wash it 3 times to remove the DWR coating, then apply 2-3 coats of a good silicone waterproofing treatment. You now have silnylon.
You bought coated nylon, sounds like. I have found about 30 yards of real sil-nylon on the dollar rack before and bought the whole thing. The stuff is unmistakable once you know what it feels like. It's as light as tissue paper and practically frictionless if you rub twp layers together between your thumb and finger.
All that dollar (now $1.50) a yard fabric comes from a place here in Dallas called Golden D'Ore Fabrics. It's a huge warehouse but I've never found anything there as cheap as what Walmart sells it for.
It's not coated (at least I am assuming you are meaning coated so that one side has a different look and sheen than the other side and I have bought some of that at Wal Mart as well,) it does have the rip-stop grid, it is thin (first time I bought any the lady guesstimate no more than 4 yards, turned out to be 13yards when she measured it,) and is slick as snot.....just like my Kifaru Para Tarp and Golite sil nylon poncho, but then again so are my Das Parka and Kifaru Woobie which are DWR materials.
Registered: 03/17/07
Posts: 374
Loc: Fredericksburg, VA
Meandering off the side of the topic here, but should you find that you don't want to use it for gear, I bet it would make excellent reusable shopping bags!
Although, I'm sure it is suitable for at least some gear . . .
_________________________
Why am I online instead of hiking?
Maybe you should test it. I remember silnylon, 1.3oz, to be "waterproof" in a foot of water. Sink some in the sink and see what it does. I sometimes buy mystery nylons at Walmart for making stuff sacks, kites, ground cloths, etc. You can probably ebay it off or sell here if you don't want it, but is sound like useful fabric. At a buck a yard, consider it a heck of a deal, no matter.
Oh yeah, the stuff makes great stuff sacks! As slick as it is, I would say KY is a little too hilly to use it for a ground cloth though Since water will eventually pass through it (or at least the 2 pieces I tried) I was wondering if it would work for making a quilt or a half bag, or if it would retain too much moisture.
You probably have nylon but not silnylon. I have some extensive experience with silnylon and if properly coated "will not leak"...Period....Lots of people like their tarps to breathe and double coated silnylon will not breathe very well at all. Really with a tarp it should not be an issue because of the tarps ability to be ventilated so easily..Hope that helps....sabre11004...
The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!!!!!
_________________________
The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!
Registered: 11/02/09
Posts: 2
Loc: Silicon Valley, Ca USA
I found some last week, and tested it. 24+ hours holding water over a coffee cup resulted in no discernible leakage, and the fabric felt dry on the underside.
Silnylon has a "feel" about it. It's like super slick tissue paper. The edges don't fray and it doesn't have a front or back side. I've bought about 30 yards of the stuff at Walmart before but its hit or miss. DO NOT LET THE NICE FABRIC LADY PIN THE SALES TAG TO THE WATERPROOF FABRIC!!! (happened to me) It will destroy several yards of your new treasure.
I suggest that you go and buy some small product actually made from SilNylon, and get a feel for it. It might be good to carry it with you when visiting WalMart, but the feel of real silnylon is so distinctive that you should not really need the sample with you.
Sea To Summit makes some small stuff sacks as well as a tiny folding shopping bag - both out of silnylon. You can use either one of these things, I am sure.
Identification of fabrics by "remote non-feeling" is likely to be impossible.
There are published "burn tests" to help identify the different fabrics, but WalMart frowns on you pulling out a Zippo and burning up little corners of their fabric in the aisle. Some of the fabrics are pretty hard to identify from a burn test, because they may be blends of two fiber types.
Sometimes I can positively tell polyester from nylon with a burn test, but not always.
I also have pretty much given up on finding outdoor fabrics at my WalMarts -- I haven't seen silnylon there in about 2 1/2 years now. Same with coated nylon. found some mosquito netting, though.
I just ordered 20 yards of silnylon. I received it last week. Look at the Jones Tent 2 on the homemade gear web site. He tells where two order it. All I could find around here at fabric stores was ripstop. Cost online was 3.00 a yard. Plus 5 buck cut fee per color and shipping. Name Of the place is Noah Lamport. You could most likley just Google NoahLamport They were much cheaper than even regular ripstop at the local fabric stores!
Our long-time Sponsor, BackcountryGear.com - The leading source for ultralite/lightweight outdoor gear:
Affiliate Disclaimer: This forum is an affiliate of BackcountryGear.com, Amazon.com, R.E.I. and others. The product links herein are linked to their sites. If you follow these links to make a purchase, we may get a small commission. This is our only source of support for these forums. Thanks.!