Test for pure Kancheepuram Silk

A couple of years ago Amma, niece, Brittany (family friend of my sister in the USA) and I visited my sister staying at Chennai. We decided to go sightseeing to Vellore and on the way visit the temples at Kanchi. Since Brittany wanted to have a look at the weaving of Kanjeevaram silk sarees, we requested the taxi driver to show us a weaver in work at Kanchi which is famous for the Kanccheepuram silk sarees- hand woven pure silk sarees with motiffs made of silver zari dipped in pure gold.

Though there were many shops along the way, we were taken to one 'good' shop by the driver. I told the salesman that we were not interested in buying but wanted to see the weaving of a saree. He took us to the first floor and we saw their craftsman weaving a beautiful pink saree with gold motiffs and border. Man, was it beautiful! I showed Brittany the gold thread and the test for its purity.

Weaving silk using the loom

Pure silk thread, outer zari, innermost red thread

Having satisfied our curiosity, we decided to leave, when the salesman forced us to just have a 'look' at their collection of sarees. We decided to look but not buy.

The salesman began showing us the cheapest of their lot INR 800. Beautiful sarees, the zari/motiffs were not pure he said( he already knew I knew about the test for pure Zari) but insisted the silk was pure. The saree was not expensive, was beautiful and silk 'pure', so I decided on seeing a few. I somehow felt the silk needed testing. Brittany and Prama(niece) were excited to see the test too.I first asked the salesman if he was sure the silk was pure. He was dead sure that  the silk was pure but insisted the zari was not. (I was speaking in  Hindi, had worn a Salwar kameez so he assumed I was not a south Indian:))

I asked him if he could get me a matchbox, he was surprised. I said I wanted to test the silk. He brought one, asked me if I really wanted to test and began drawing out loose thread for the test (lots of thread actually:)

All this attracted attention and all the sales(wo)men and customers gathered around us. He struck the match and held it to the fibres of 'pure silk' and the fibres burnt quickly and formed a  hard, shiny lump and could not be powdered!

The salesman in action

The salesman hung his head in shame. He was trying to sell a saree which was 100% synthetic as pure silk!

One could be easily fooled by such salesman, return home and spend many sleepless nights worrying about the money wasted on expensive fake silk.

In Chennai at big showrooms like Nalli's, Kumarans etc we asked to be shown pure silk saree and were shown sarees with silver zari (22K gold plated) and pure silk. We were also informed that there were cheaper versions(showed them too) which were pure silk but with 18K gold.

Here is how you test a Kancheepuram saree: 22K gold plated silver zari and Pure silk

For the silk:

Collect a couple of threads from the warp and weft from a bundle and light one end. When the thread stops burning, you will see a tiny ball of ash. Gently press with fingers and it will crumble into a powder and smell of burnt hair if it is a natural fiber-silk/wool/hair.

Extracting silk thread

Extracting cotton fiber

Carefully burn fiber

If it has a mixture of natural fibers, say cotton, jute, then it will burn but not crumble nor form a ball at the end.

If it is a 

synthetic fiber, the fibers will quickly burn and leave a ball/ lump of burnt fibers which will be hard, shiny and you will not be able to powder it.It will not smell of burnt hair.

Fibres -burnt (cotton), crumbly/ash (silk), lump(synthetic)

For the zari:

Find a loose bit of zari . Pure zari has a red silk thread covered with silver dipped in 22K gold. So when you pull out the gold covering, the inner thread is red irrespective of the saree colour.If the thread is white, then it is not a pure zari.

Gently pull off outer gold thread

Red thread within gold zari irrespective of colour of cloth

I guess the next time when buying a pure silk Kanjeevaram saree you will be fully prepared!

Note:

 A friend was fooled to buying a string of pearls which was entirely fake (not even cultured). Here is how to test pearl.

Gently bite the surface of pearl. If it feels gritty, it is pearl -cultured/natural. If it feels smooth, it is fake.

 A real  polished coral appears to be with flaws-tiny holes and cracks and not flawless.

Many thanks to Brittany for providing me the real pictures of our adventure in Kanchipuram!

Thanks to Pavan I could click pictures of all the tests.

Thank you Pramod for inspiring me to write this.