Cotton duck

Cotton duck (from Dutch: doek, "linen canvas"), also simply duck, sometimes duck cloth or duck canvas, is a heavy, plain woven cotton fabric. Duck canvas differs from plain canvas in that the threads in the former are more tightly woven. There is also linen duck, which is less often used.

Cotton duck is used in a wide range of applications, from sneakers to painting canvases to tents to sandbags.

Duck fabric is woven with two yarns together in the warp and a single yarn in the weft.

Classification

Duck is classified according to weight in a numerical system, with grade 1 the heaviest and grade 12 the lightest variety. Besides this, traditional names exist, which are rarely used today.

The classification system used today dates back to the 1920s. A numbered duck classification system was put into effect by the Cotton Duck Association and the Department of Commerce when discrepancies came about with various specifications and qualities of material. In a technical paper titled, "Development of the Standard Numbered Cotton Duck Specification", the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Standards established a set of specifications acceptable to manufacturer and consumer.