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I’ve seen shirts. Rayon is a process, not a material. It’s somewhere in the range of satin or silk. This wood fiber I haven’t seen unblended so I don’t know what its consistency is like, but I would guess in the neighborhood of flax. Softer than hemp, rougher than cotton. Whether it’s softer or rougher than linen I could not tell you.

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I don't think that's quite right.

Rayon / viscose is basically: you take some cellulosic material (wood pulp, could be bamboo pulp, whatever) and dissolve it in a strong basic solution. You now have cellulose in solution. Then, you shoot it out of tiny holes to make almost 100% cellulose fibers of whatever diameter (the hole size). Then you make this into yarns and weave it into something. You can make it seem like silk, cotton, wool, whatever.

I don't think the feedstock has much to do with it (though lignin-containing vs. not is an issue).

What's 'new' is that someone started making a big deal about bamboo as the feedstock about 15, 20 years ago, as a renewable material. Apparently the rayon process was patented in 1892.

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