: I got asked this at work earlier today. I have no idea how we got
: on the subject.

I can guess. Silk was the topic on a segment of National Public Radio's Science Friday show a few weeks ago. (July 30).

There is a very-brief-summary on their website, www.scifri.org. Also the picture I linked to, below.

The whole story is in their podcast, which you can link to from their site.

In the broadcast they mention the use of silk as a component in armor. That was the first time I'd heard of such a use, and your post repeats the idea. Coincidence? Or did something in a conversation bring this recent broadcast into recall?

: Has any one incorporated plain woven silk fabric
: into their laminations (ie the exterior of a stripper)?

Exterior is probably not the place for it. It is not going to be transparent when it is wet out, and the best place for using it as a reinforcing material would be on the inside.

You might be right about surfboard builders using it. I've heard of them laminating fabric to their boards for decoration, and there are certainly plenty of great designs on silk.

It should be a good fabric to experiment with as a skin for an SOF design. I'm curious how it would hold up. Nylon was touted as the manmade miracle fiber which was synthetic silk-- an it certainly swept the market in lady's stockings, but if silk and nylon are chemically similar then I'd expect a silk kayak skin would stretch when wet.

An aside: I've long wondered why the Chinese didn't invent silkscreen printing 1000 years ago. They had all the components, but not the idea.

PGJ