Polymaker Panchroma Dual Silk PLA Filament 1.75mm 1kg

Two colours in one strand. Dual Silk runs a pair of silk pigments side by side down the filament, so as the nozzle travels the print shifts from one to the other — a gradient you get for free, on a single extruder, with no AMS trickery.

It's the glossiest thing Polymaker make and, surprisingly, the toughest PLA in the Panchroma range. Formerly sold as PolyLite Dual Silk; the current formula was reworked specifically to fix the brittleness and clogging the old silk was known for.

At a glance

Worth knowing

It's the toughest PLA Polymaker sell. At 13.8 kJ/m² notched impact it beats the Matte's 10.0 and is more than four times the Marble's — unusual for a decorative filament, and it means a silk print survives being handled. The sheen is in the filament itself rather than a surface coating, so it doesn't mark with fingerprints and scuffs don't show as dull patches.

How the two colours land is down to your geometry. The transition follows the extrusion path, so tall thin prints shift gradually up the model while wide flat ones can change within a single layer. Vase mode and spiral prints show it off best. It isn't controllable from the slicer — that's the charm and the catch.

Silk filaments are glossy because the polymer flows smoothly, which also means overhangs sag a little more readily than matte PLA. Keep cooling high, and if a print has fine detail on a steep overhang, slow that section down.

Storage

Polymaker specify drying at 55°C for 6 hours if a spool has taken on moisture. Sealed with fresh desiccant between prints it rarely needs it.

As filament takes on moisture you'll hear popping or hissing at the nozzle, then see stringing and rough surfaces, and eventually the strand goes brittle enough to snap in the tube. That's almost always moisture, not technique — dry it and it usually comes back.