Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #9 Maple Leafs

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in. Each Tuesday readers are invited to share a blog post about one of their collection and a bit of related trivia.

This feature was inspired by a great deal I got on an entire rack of ties at an indoor flea market. Added to the ties I already had, I realized I had quite a collection of neat ties. So I started this blog party to show off my collection.

I'd like to invite you all to join. Remember, you don't have to show a tie. Everyone is invited to link up and show off one of your treasures: your pictures, your flowers, your pets, your kids, your parole officer,or anything else that you want to show off, and tell us some interesting information related to it.

My posts will always be about one of my ties, but your posts can be about anything. The point is to share something you have that you want to show off, and add a little background information.

My Tie Of The Week is my Maple Leaf Tie. I wrote last week about the prominence and significance of the Maple tree to Michigan culture and business, and this coming weekend, if all goes according to plan we will be attending the Maple Festival in Northern Michigan, so it seemed like this tie was especially appropriate this week.

I have lots of fun novelty ties and a few boring conservative ties. Then I have a few that are somewhere in between. This one fits nicely in that category. It has some character and personality, but I could still wear it to a business meeting or a job interview. It's a versatile tie, just like me.

This tie, was made by Woodward.


I haven't been able to find a lot of information about Woodward, although several patents were issued to Robert F Woodward in the 1950's regarding neckties. I can only assume that he was somehow related to the company that makes Woodward ties, but I have no way to know for sure.

My tie (How come when I type that I always want to spell it "mai tai"?) is 100% silk, Hand Finished and dyed using a process called Ancient Madder. I did find some fascinating information about Ancient Madder dying.

The “madder” part of this phrase refers to a natural dye from a Eurasian plant Rubia tinctoria, the roots of which have been used since ancient times as a dye. Thus “ancient” madder.

Since the 19th Century the dye has primarily been used on silk, producing beautifully deep, muted and soft colorations of red, green, chocolate, medium blue, and yellow.

Silk dyed in this manner is characterized by a dusty-looking finish and a feel, very much like fine suede. And not just any silk, a special “gum” silk, is used.

The silk is first boiled to remove its natural gum (an organic resin), dyed, and then bathed in a new gum-based solution that gives it its characteristic soft feel.

Today the process is employed mainly for neckwear printed in England. The coloring agent in madder root alizarin was in fact first chemically extracted and then synthesized in 1869 by two English chemists.

Although the dyeing process, even today, requires a variety of painstaking steps, synthesized alizarin brought the price within the reach of commercial producers, and silks of ancient madder became popular in the second-half of Victoria’s reign for neckwear and scarves

I was going to include lots of trivia about maple syrup production, but I was so fascinated by this procees of silk dying that I decided to include it instead.


Ok, Now it's your turn. Enter your link below. Make sure you link to your post and not just your main blog.

McKlinky has changed to Linky Tools. This is my first time using it in the new platform, so I hope it works.