Are sheepskins inflammable?

Are you wondering whether a sheepskin is inflammable or not? We have found the answer and it is quite good!

A sheepskin is a natural material with all its natural superpowers. One of them is, that it is not inflammable. How can this be? Well, the most essential feature of a sheepskin is its fibrous structure that makes it inflammable. Let us make a visible example for you: 

If you take a lighter, turn it on and hold it against a sheepskin, the sheepskin will start to shrink and curl, but it will not catch the fire or continue to burn. 

This amazing superpower has been discovered many years ago and has resulted in the use of genuine leather in aircrafts, on ships, trains, and buses, because they must meet the minimum standards for fire protection. Genuine leather is rather expensive compared to fake leather, but fake lather will burn immediately.

If we put some numbers on it, a tanned sheepskin is resistant to a short-time exposure of fire with temperatures up to 200°C. This means, that for a sheepskin, exposure to temperatures in the range of 130-170°C for several minutes does not cause any structural changes.

But what happens when you put a burning flame to a sheepskin?

When the flame meets the fur or skin, the natural leather or natural hairs will ignite after 5 seconds. Fake leather or fake fur will ignite immediately, burn slowly and eventually burn down to ashes. A natural sheepskin or leather for that matter will slowly begin to smoulder, then glow for a long time and eventually shrink.

Another amazing thing about sheepskins is, that natural leather is a lot safer than the fake kind, because the emission of carbon monoxide is one and a half times lower.

Be aware to not leave your sheepskin in a hot car in summertime. The skin can get hot enough to start shrinking on a very hot summer day. A vegetable-tanned sheepskin will begin to shrink at 70°C. A sheepskin tanned with chromium-3 starts shrinking between 85-110°C.

We hope you enjoyed our information about inflammable sheepskins. We sell only the very best natural sheepskins, and all the superpowers naturally comes with! Come by our store to see them for yourself.