Price
No doubt about it – genuine, high-quality silk will always be relatively expensive. Synthetic fibres like polyester can be made to look like real silk to the untrained eye. Although synthetic fabrics can be deliberately priced high, low prices usually indicate the fabric is not genuine silk. Real silk usually costs at least ten times as much as synthetics to produce.
Lustre
Thai silk is renowned for its lustre. It is a result of the combination of threads of different single colours in each of the weft and warp. This "shot" effect gives a surface that "shines" and appears to change colour as the angle of light on it changes.
Synthetic fabrics shine white, no matter what the angle of the light.
Synthetic fabrics shine white, no matter what the angle of the light.
Rub the silk
This is a very quick test and requires some information about the traits of real silk to spot it in the first place. Rub the silk with your hands and if it’s a real one then you will feel warmth on your hands after rubbing it. If you do not feel any warmth then it is artificial.
Burn the silk
This test will guide you how to know about real silk by burning it with flame. Of course you wont be burning the entire silk! Here is how you will do it Pull a thread from one corner of the silk fabric and burn it with flame. If after burning it smells like a burning hair and the ashes are brittle then it means that the silk is made from silk worm cocoon.
Chemical Test
This test will rightly tell you whether the silk is real or not. You will need the following chemicals in order to conduct this test. - 16 grams Copper Sulphate - 8 grams Glycerin - 1 tablespoon Caustic Soda Mix the above chemicals in a jar filled with 150 cc of water. Now take a small piece of silk that you want to test and then dip it into this solution. You will see that real silk will dissolve in this solution after a few minutes but if it is artificial silk, it will not dissolve.
Reference : mizpah.biz and stepbystep.com
