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Getting started

Tested in its worst direction

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page11
The quickest burning direction. Found by preliminary trial, then used for everything.

A woven fabric does not burn the same way in both directions

Warp and weft differ in yarn, twist and density, and the standard treats that as a fact to be measured rather than averaged.

So the procedure starts by finding out which direction is worse

Conduct preliminary trials to determine the quickest burning direction. One specimen is cut from each direction of the fabric, 50 mm by 150 mm, two inches by six.

And then every real specimen comes from that direction

Prepare and test five specimens from the fastest burning direction. The classification is therefore a statement about the fabric at its worst, not about the fabric on average.

Which is a deliberate choice and it is worth naming as one

An average over both directions would produce a number that no part of the fabric actually exhibits. For a fire standard the useful figure is the one describing the direction a flame will in fact take.

The specimen size is fixed and it has a consequence

Fifty millimeters by a hundred and fifty, which is two inches by six. If a specimen that size cannot be cut, the item is not tested.

And the rule names the items it will not test

Narrow fabrics and loose fibrous materials manufactured less than 50 mm in width in either direction shall not be tested, and the examples given are hula skirts, leis, fringe, loose feathers, wigs and hairpieces.

That exclusion is by specimen geometry, not by risk

The rule is not saying a lei is safe. It is saying the test cannot be performed on one, which is a different statement and a more honest one than inventing a result.

The marking instruction is a small thing with a real reason

Identify the fabric direction being careful not to make any identifying marks in the exposed area to be tested. A pen mark is a substance on the specimen and a substance on the specimen is part of what burns.

And one special case cuts the specimen to hit the worst feature

A metallic thread fabric is tested as a plain surface fabric, with the specimens cut so that the metallic thread is parallel to the long dimension and arranged so the test flame impinges on a metallic thread.

So even inside one specimen the flame is aimed at the hazard

Which is the same principle as choosing the direction and the area. Four separate places in this part make the same decision, and the next section is about all of them together.

References

16 CFR 1610.6 and 1610.7. The test is run in the fabric’s worst direction: "Conduct preliminary trials to determine the quickest burning direction", after which specimens are cut "from the fastest burning direction". It is run on the worst area: embroidery on netting "shall be tested with two sets of preliminary specimens to determine the most flammable area (which offers the greatest amount of netting or embroidery in the 150 mm (6 in.) direction)", and "The full test shall be completed on a sample cut from the area that has the fastest burn rate." And 1610.7(a): "The final classification shall be the preliminary classification before or after refurbishing, whichever is the more severe flammability classification." law.cornell.edu
16 CFR 1610.6(a)(1), which gives guidelines for fabrics that "require extra attention when preparing test specimens because of their particular construction characteristics", noting that the list "is not intended to be all-inclusive". Fabrics flocked overall "are treated as raised surface textile fabrics"; flock printed fabrics "shall be treated as plain surface textile fabrics"; cut velvet with a patterned construction "shall be considered a raised surface textile fabric"; metallic thread fabrics "shall be considered plain surface textile fabrics provided the base fabric is smooth", with specimens cut so that "the test flame impinges on a metallic thread"; and flat woven constructions with burn-out patterns "shall be considered plain surface textile fabrics". Paragraph (a)(1)(vi): "Narrow fabrics and loose fibrous materials manufactured less than 50 mm (2 in) in width in either direction shall not be tested. If a 50 mm by 150 mm (2 in by 6 in) specimen cannot be cut due to the nature of the item, i.e. hula skirts, leis, fringe, loose feathers, wigs, hairpieces, etc., do not conduct a test." law.cornell.edu
Written from 16 CFR part 1610 and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. Part 1610 is the Standard for the Flammability of Clothing Textiles and it classifies fabric by how fast a flame spreads across a test specimen; it does not govern clips, pins, blades or templates, and nothing here says it does. No container on this shelf is described as fire resistant, flame retardant or rated for anything, and no liner is described by what it will achieve in any particular use. This shelf is a subset of the store-small-dry shelf and the sewing notions property enumerates that shelf in full.