A New Twist for Spun Kapok

Spun kapok possess a high luster and is thick and woolly to the touch, yet with a certain silkiness and softness lacking in wool. Kapok fabric has all the virtues and none of the drawbacks of wool, linen and cotton, besides certain valuable additional characteristics.

Today, chemists are able to create all kinds of outstanding products in their laboratories. So many of them appear on the market under various names that we sometimes forget that Nature herself is able to turn out some pretty interesting products too! Kapok (kapuk) fiber is one of these.

The cleaned fiber, which is called a floss, is springy slick and odorless. It sheds water like a bird's back, and resists the passage of sound and heat. It is half the weight of wool and just as warm. High quality floss supports over thirty-eight times it's own weight in water.

Each fiber is a smooth closed tube coated with wax. Not having the twist that grows in cotton fibers or hooks found in sheep's wool, Kapok resists mating and felting. The problem of spinning kapok, though extremely difficult, was not insolvable.