Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Silks vs Modern Materials for base layers

OK........

Why expose yourself to something you do not have to?

I don't believe I advocated that. I was just commenting on your statement that all heavy metals are toxic. How about gold?

Humans have been exposing themselves to silver, including silver nanoparticles, for thousands of years. Apart from the risk of your skin going a bit blue if you regularly drink colloidal silver, if there were going to be adverse health effects from contact with it you'd think they'd have emerged by now.

dammit Dan you got it wrong. all those people wearing silver jewelry day in and day out are gonna drop dead any time now.

hell of a difference between ingesting heavy metals and some silver coated fabrics you wear.

BTW found some silk baselayers on Sierra today when ordering stuff due to a sale, no silver though, but gonna give it a shot and see where it falls in with my various wool and synthetics as far as effectiveness. have a fair bit of surveying still to do this winter so will see how it does.

Heavy metal toxicity

Here is one link, google foo it. More info than you care to know.

And yes, gold can be, I had a patient who got very sick after having some gold crowns put in.

once again the key word in all that is ingested. If your going to eat the clothing then yes you have a point but wearing it not so much

Bullsh**

actually not bullchit, just doesnt apply to silver in clothing like is being discussed here.....or people that wear watches and jewelry would be phugged......worn is not ingested....and if your worried about silver in clothing lead bullets must scare the chit out of you.....

Did you read the paper you linked? It says of silver "very high doses" are required to produce acute effects. You actually have to inhale or ingest quite a large amount. Quite a different thing from having tiny quantities of it in fabric next to your skin. Indeed if having it next to your skin was a problem how do you explain the fact that for thousands of years people have worn it in jewellery, including piercings, as well as drinking and eating from silver implements, and yet without reports of adverse health effects?

As for gold crowns, the thing about them is that they are usually made of alloys in which gold is only a minor constituent, and it isn't the gold which is associated with the harm. A bit like saying glass makes you drunk, because booze is served in it.

You are correct in that it doesn't apply to silver in clothing, but with respect to gold, which is what was being discussed above in my post, it's not only bullsh**, it's utter, complete bullsh**.

Hard to believe anyone arguing about toxicity would use a sample of one, with a supposed toxicant of unknown composition, and an anecdotal outcome as "evidence."

You are seeming to take exception to heavy metals being toxic, it is well documented. Have you ever seen contact dermatitis from people that are sensitive to silver jewelry? I have.

OK.....use what you like.
I have been very happy with silk/wool, not so much with the newer materials. YMMV.

Silver clothing...an answer to a question I have never had with silk/wool.

Do me a favor and fix your post, I didn't say what you attributed to me above.

And what I took exception to was your statement that ALL heavy metals are toxic. They're not. If you want to argue a point, know your subject.

Contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction, or a simple irritation, is it not?

yes it is and one that can happen easily with wool too. its not a toxicity issue

and gold itself is about as harmless as a material can be as it is nonreactive unlike most metals. if someone is reacting to a gold filling its likely the copper or other materials in the alloy. and a filling in a mouth is a long way from a material on the skin as you would be swallowing whatever is coming off the filling there for ingesting.....and once again no one is planning on eating teh clothing though as far as heavy metals go silver is pretty nontoxic and i doubt there is enough in a piece of clothing to do anything if you did eat it.

I find this thread funny, considering the number of people here who reload and play with lead bullets frequently, most likely not washing their hands. Lead is toxic too, bro.

believe i pointed that out too

Dan, I'd just like to point out that every single person who ingested silver prior to about the end of WW I is dead.

Back to the original topic...

My cold-weather outings are pretty much limited to ice fishing. I love my set of silk top and bottom for a base layer. I wear fleece bottoms over that, and either wool or heavy poly shirt on top. I don a set of insulated overalls when I get to the lake, and if it's really windy, I'll put windpants and top over the whole works.

I had no idea so many men wore silk undies. I feel better about myself already.

Thank you.