I Know It Works
Oct. 13th, 2010 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerHow many have heard that a silk scarf or handkerchief will catch a bullet?
This isn't myth; there are multiple accounts, many of them well documented. In the Twenties and Thirties, thick, quilted silk vests were sold as protection against bullets. However, I've never seen it happen.
I bought some cheap silk handkerchiefs (around $1.75 each + S&H) and dedicated one to test this.
I tried multiple arrangements. Even the one most likely to succeed failed miserably. That was: Handkerchief folded into multiple layers as if to put in a pocket, stapled at the top to cardboard with nothing but a couple more layers of cardboard behind, being hit with a 250 grain lead flat point .45 Colt Cowboy Action Load. That was a big, slow, lead bullet with a flat nose.
Maybe, if the bullet had been a softer alloy, the results might have been different. I think the main failing was that this silk was low quality. (Which is why I was willing to shoot at it. :-)
This isn't myth; there are multiple accounts, many of them well documented. In the Twenties and Thirties, thick, quilted silk vests were sold as protection against bullets. However, I've never seen it happen.
I bought some cheap silk handkerchiefs (around $1.75 each + S&H) and dedicated one to test this.
I tried multiple arrangements. Even the one most likely to succeed failed miserably. That was: Handkerchief folded into multiple layers as if to put in a pocket, stapled at the top to cardboard with nothing but a couple more layers of cardboard behind, being hit with a 250 grain lead flat point .45 Colt Cowboy Action Load. That was a big, slow, lead bullet with a flat nose.
Maybe, if the bullet had been a softer alloy, the results might have been different. I think the main failing was that this silk was low quality. (Which is why I was willing to shoot at it. :-)
