I Know It Works

[stickmaker]

How 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. :-)

Comments

[donsimpson.livejournal.com]

I've read that silk has the strength of the same weight of steel (old Chinese drilling rigs used silk cables). So I believe that a properly made silk vest could stop some bullets, but most modern silk scarves I've seen I wouldn't trust to offer more protection than the same number of layers of window screening.

[kengr]

I suspect that the Colt 45 round was a bad choice. Remember, the .45 auto was introduced because the then current service revolver didn't have enough stopping power.

at the other end of the scale, I'm told that a heavy jacket will stop a Colt *.25* auto .

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

I bet this would stop one...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/spider-silk/