A fairly quick way of distinguishing FK from Nylon is holding one end of
the string near a flame and observe how it "melts": Ny forms a yellowish
ball end whilst FK only gets to form a "mushroom" (similar to a mushroom
screw head). Ongoing heat will grow the ball end and lead to dripping
with nylon and the FK mushroom will just carbonise...
Michael
-----Original Message-----
From: William Brohinsky <tiorbin...@gmail.com>
To: Lex van Sante <lvansa...@gmail.com>
Cc: lute mailing list list <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: How to distinguish carbon from nylon.
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2012 19:01:09 -0400
I am no expert on plastic strings, nor am I a degreed chemical
engineer. I have had a six-month romp through carbon chemistry at work,
and can suggest a few things.
First, Nylon and 'Carbon' strings are both carbon, since carbon is the
major constituent. Nylon used for strings, identified by Mimmo, is
Nylon 6,12 (also called Nylon612). It is a long-chain carbon molecule
which is usually made by breaking a carbon ring and linking the ends to
other broken carbon rings. The result are very long molecule-scale
chains which connect to each other to provide good longitudinal
strength. The particular characteristics of Nylon 612, as noted, are
flexibility and resistance to moisture.
"carbon" strings/fishline is also a long-chain carbon molecule with
Fluorine atoms bound in. Technically, these strings are "Fluorocarbon",
which gives a clue for why the "FK" nomenclature. Fluorine is extremely
reactive, and once bound into a carbon chain, it holds tightly. This
reduces the ability of the chain to react to or bond to other molecules
(like water) and makes it very hard to tear the chains apart. The
result is that fluorocarbon strings have much higher strength, greater
moisture resistance, are somewhat stiffer, and can be made thinner for
the same strength. Because they are so non-reactive, Fluorocarbons are
the darling of the chemical industry, since containers and tubing and
structures made from such fluorocarbons as Teflon and Delrin can
withstand attack from all but the most active acids and bases.
The key interest in FK fishing line is for leaders: The short lengths
make the stiffness less of a problem and the index of refraction and
transparency of the material causes it to essentially become invisible
in water. That makes it harder for fish to see the line, and easier for
the angler to fool the fish into thinking that that tasty bit of bait
has no strings attached.
That suggests that you could tell nylon strings apart from fluorocarbon
strings by sticking a short length into water and observing how visible
they remain. While the FK strings may not entirely disappear, they
should be considerably more transparent than the Nylon in water, where
the opaqueness and index-mismatch at the surface will make Nylon easy
to see.
Having said all this, I will say that I'm glad I am not a chemist.
(even though I am fascinated with the similarity of molecular shape of
dyes, stabilizers, micro-biotics, solvents, and polyamides used in
modern Ink and ink-handling to all those lovely organic carbon
molecules that keep life percolating: amino acids, enzymes, peptides
(the organic biologist's term for amides), etc. I will never look at a
bottle of Benzene the same way again...
William
On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Lex van Sante <[1]lvansa...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Nylon tends to be a bit more opaque than carbon but this really only
shows with thicker strings.
Best advice is: put it on your lute see what note you get with a
certain tension.
Compare to other strings of same note and tension and the thinner
string will be the carbon.
BTW there seem to be many types of string which are all being traded
as carbon.
The KF strings of Savarez are a different kind of string in
comparison with for instance the PVF strings of Kuerschner which are
different from the Seagur japanese fishing line which really was the
first carbon string that hit the market. I remember Toyohiko Satoh
importing those into Europe in the eighties. Naoki Fugii later sold
these strings too.
Anyway all these so called Carbon strings are heavier than Nylon so
they are thinner for a given note and tension.
Hope this helps.
Op 3 nov 2012, om 13:43 heeft Herbert Ward het volgende geschreven:
>
> Is is possible to distinguish reliably between carbon and
> nylon if the string's packaging is not available?
>
> I've seen a knowledgeable person rub the string, but I don't
> know whether he was listening to the sound, feeling the
> texture, or judging some other aspect.
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:lvansa...@gmail.com
2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
