Replicating Father Comboué's Silk Extractor Machine

[Judicator]

we need to set up a series of tests, one to determine silk's cooperation with the sun, one for the rain, and another for silk's reaction to heat and cold. we might need to add something to the silk, enhance it in some way to keep it preserved. I also thought of another problem, what about washing the fabic? i'm guessing it would have to handwashed. i sugest looking into the properties of silk worm silk, it might compare. ill do that and get back to you guys.

I am about 80% sure that spiders silk is waterproof and im 10% sure its fire proof, those numbers are incredibly crappy but I heard it somewhere haha. I will do some research and get back to you.

[Just call me Rob]

Everytime I see this on the main forums list it's truncated to
Replicating Father C. .. .
and I keep thinking it's going to be about replicating Father Christmas's something....

[Judicator]

Hahaha Rob. Im going to make a thread for you now

[Narsil]

Another good reason to focus on a craft/artisan market is that a 'real' spider silk product could conceivably survive the introduction of synthetic silk, using authenticity as a selling oint. If you went for industrial applications then any commercially viable synthetic substitute would wipe you out overnight.

[Kade everdeath]

I agree about us being destroyed without the authenticity tag.

[SPBrewer]

I just got bit by a wolf spider in bed at our cabin. Have you ever seen a wolf spider bite? It's a little square, where all four of their fangs go into you. And to think I defended the little ingrates.....

Will,
   Have you had the urge to go out late at night recently?  Have you suddenly obtained a fear of garlic?
I'm just wondering if it was a Werewolf spider.

Miss Groves,
   As someone who rapes, plunders, pillages and rapes*, let me assure you being called a "Perv" has little impact.


* You said rape twice.
   Yes I know, I like that one.

[mr21guy]

Bikinis eh? I think we just found the primary application for our product 

I had never thought about the whole "spider silk deteriorating" thing...I muse look into this, ill probably cry if it does break down after time and sun exposure.

at least goths won't have to worry about deteriorating, but i was thinking about the J’ba Fofi, a african cryptid that is supposed to have a leg span of five feet and can spin webs strong enough to catch a person. here's a link http://www.helium.com/items/1824206-possibility-of-the-existence-of-the-congolese-giant-spider

that thing sounds wicked. i am going to do more research on that and try to find out some reports of it or sightings. imagine if we had one of those things to get silk from!

[Judicator]

Another good reason to focus on a craft/artisan market is that a 'real' spider silk product could conceivably survive the introduction of synthetic silk, using authenticity as a selling oint. If you went for industrial applications then any commercially viable synthetic substitute would wipe you out overnight.

Whats more authentic then showing pictures/video of our slaves er underage children er unpaid workforce er employees silking real spiders? I really cannot think of any other way to prove authenticity.

I just got bit by a wolf spider in bed at our cabin. Have you ever seen a wolf spider bite? It's a little square, where all four of their fangs go into you. And to think I defended the little ingrates.....

Will,
   Have you had the urge to go out late at night recently?  Have you suddenly obtained a fear of garlic?
I'm just wondering if it was a Werewolf spider.

Miss Groves,
   As someone who rapes, plunders, pillages and rapes*, let me assure you being called a "Perv" has little impact.


* You said rape twice.
   Yes I know, I like that one.

Yes.

Bikinis eh? I think we just found the primary application for our product 

I had never thought about the whole "spider silk deteriorating" thing...I muse look into this, ill probably cry if it does break down after time and sun exposure.

at least goths won't have to worry about deteriorating, but i was thinking about the J’ba Fofi, a african cryptid that is supposed to have a leg span of five feet and can spin webs strong enough to catch a person. here's a link http://www.helium.com/items/1824206-possibility-of-the-existence-of-the-congolese-giant-spider

that thing sounds wicked. i am going to do more research on that and try to find out some reports of it or sightings. imagine if we had one of those things to get silk from!

"Get yer authetic Man-Eating-Spider silk dress here! 100% natural spider silk from the Central African BABY EATING SPIDER OF FREAKING DEATH!"

[Kade everdeath]

Yeah, there was a supposed to have been a sighting in Louisiana in 1948 by a  family going to church, and again somewhere in the Dakotas. But I think that a more practicable spider would be an orb weaver, unless someone has a couple giant African spiders laying around.

[Miss Groves]

I just got bit by a wolf spider in bed at our cabin. Have you ever seen a wolf spider bite? It's a little square, where all four of their fangs go into you. And to think I defended the little ingrates.....

Will,
   Have you had the urge to go out late at night recently?  Have you suddenly obtained a fear of garlic?
I'm just wondering if it was a Werewolf spider.

Miss Groves,
   As someone who rapes, plunders, pillages and rapes*, let me assure you being called a "Perv" has little impact.


* You said rape twice.
   Yes I know, I like that one.

first of all OUCH, spiders luckily aren't that big or dangerous here, makes me thankful actually that the garden wolf spiders (as we call them) are hardly about and only in summer.


second- as long as it's not murder, rape and pillage in that order....


If the spider silk is suseptible to breakdown under uv conditions, how about mixing with another protein based fibre? other silk or wool blends.
Old pieces of silk have broken down more slowly and examples of victorian and even earlier pieces are still in existance although they are kept in controled conditions now. the best are wool and silk tafetta as well as brocade silk.

[Judicator]

I just got bit by a wolf spider in bed at our cabin. Have you ever seen a wolf spider bite? It's a little square, where all four of their fangs go into you. And to think I defended the little ingrates.....

Will,
   Have you had the urge to go out late at night recently?  Have you suddenly obtained a fear of garlic?
I'm just wondering if it was a Werewolf spider.

Miss Groves,
   As someone who rapes, plunders, pillages and rapes*, let me assure you being called a "Perv" has little impact.


* You said rape twice.
   Yes I know, I like that one.

first of all OUCH, spiders luckily aren't that big or dangerous here, makes me thankful actually that the garden wolf spiders (as we call them) are hardly about and only in summer.


second- as long as it's not murder, rape and pillage in that order....


If the spider silk is suseptible to breakdown under uv conditions, how about mixing with another protein based fibre? other silk or wool blends.
Old pieces of silk have broken down more slowly and examples of victorian and even earlier pieces are still in existance although they are kept in controled conditions now. the best are wool and silk tafetta as well as brocade silk.

Honestly, the more you talk about your knowledge of textile, the more you look like a freaking saint.

Will wool break down in sunlight at all?

[Miss Groves]

moi? a saint? 
not one bit.
I've just studied historic clothing for over half my life, i pick up a lot of weird stuff here and there.
When you start looking into clothing all these little things come up. for example how clothing makes the way you move completely change and sometimes even the way you think about things and your environment (sounds kooky i know)

As a reenactor i learned about spinning and i've used drop spindles with wool and silk and you have to learn the properties of each one and how the fibres connect with each other to stay a strong strand and how dye affects the proteins etc etc etc and how weave does the same blah blah boring blah

i'm just trying to put forward anything that leaps to mind and might be helpful.

wool is a whole different matter than silk, although animal protein like silk it has an almost inbuilt protection of the lanolin. most of the natural oils are scoured away during washing but there is usually a remaining amount no matter how small around the fibre.
All but the most man made fibre will break down over time, natural ones are just more suseptable to damp, rot, mould and other animal attack.

i once owned a wool tafetta dress from about 1876 and although it had small holes and hadn't been kept particularly well, the fabric was still strong and tough after 130 years

[Robert Sandler]

I'll believe the 'clothing influences your thoughts' thing.  I feel much less lazy after changing out of my PJs in the morning.

[SPBrewer]

on a very random note, spider silk/cobwebs were used in ancient and medieval times as wound dressings, nice to see that something that old had very real practical applications nowadays

WOW!!!
A very random note that just happens to fit the topic!  What's the chances of that happening? 
(I can't help it, I'm watching an old Groucho movie while typing this.)

On another note, that's just as random, I found an issue of National Geographic magazine (Aug 2001) that has a nice article titled "Deadly Silk : The Spiders Web". 

But before going to the link below, answer this....
How much spider silk would it take to stop a Jumbo jet in flight?
(If the silk is spun into one thread, cord, rope, etc.. how thick would it need to be?)

Part of the article can be found at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/html/ft_20010801.2.html

The magazine article is more in depth than the web page.  The magazine article goes on for 45 pages with lots of cool photos.

Until some random thought that matches this one comes a long again,  I am:

[Judicator]

Wow, I think I forgot about this thread for awhile.
Miss Groves, your information comes in handy quite alot here. So thank you lots.


Has 21 been around? I havent heard from his in awhile...


An update on my progress:
I have gathered some supplies for the extraction machine replica, however, piecing one together with so little information and crappy illustrations is a challenge. Real work cannot begin for awhile, I need more supplies, which means waiting for funding (my parents monies haha) then I have to trial and error my way through until I get a crappy prototype.

Has anyone else made any fanciful discoveries or anything?

[mr21guy]

hey guys . sorry i havent been around for awhile. i just got so busy all of a sudden. hopefully i can find the time to continue with this thread. i havent learned anything new except i have been drawing up some designs for a modified extractor. still a work in progress though. it just feels good to be typing again after so long away.

[Judicator]

hey guys . sorry i havent been around for awhile. i just got so busy all of a sudden. hopefully i can find the time to continue with this thread. i havent learned anything new except i have been drawing up some designs for a modified extractor. still a work in progress though. it just feels good to be typing again after so long away.

Merc work does that to you, right?

[mr21guy]

can you post pictures of your progress. i will try to do the same.

[Judicator]

NEWS

Excellent progress my friends!!
I have done two very important things
1: I have gathered some (not all) of the parts for the machine and started to "wing it" seeing as how I can not make heads or tails of the various pictures I have procured of the machine.
2: I have come up with a theory on safely and efficiently gathering the spiders in groups (yes groups!) at a time. However, this is a theory, and it needs revision, research, and finally...testing.

[mr21guy]

wow! it feels so great to be typing again. I had almosy completely forgot about this! great job man id love to hear your theory

[wrenchhead]

And with the silky smooth feeling, it probably will fit in with today's Army. 

Mr. Brewer, I am injured, sir, at the suggestion that we would wear such finery into battle!
 
-Jake

[Judicator]

And with the silky smooth feeling, it probably will fit in with today's Army. 

Mr. Brewer, I am injured, sir, at the suggestion that we would wear such finery into battle!
 
-Jake

Oh you know you would ;P

and 21 guy, I am discussing this theory with my friend/partner and we are working on it, however, I do not want to say it on here...all the greatest trade secrets are kept a secret until it is not possible to hold it in any longer.

[mr21guy]

how its been a while! i dont even know if anyone is still interested but i have never forgotten about the plans if you want my email i could give it to you judicator but i dont want everyone seeing.

[Judicator]

how its been a while! i dont even know if anyone is still interested but i have never forgotten about the plans if you want my email i could give it to you judicator but i dont want everyone seeing.

No problem, I understand, go ahead and send it to me in a pm.
And I havent forgotten. I just haven't been posting on the forum lately because...well..I suppose I don't have a real reason just lurking I guess.