Product Code Database
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other , especially , , and . The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool.
Wool is an animal fiber and consists of protein together with a small percentage of . This makes it chemically quite distinct from cotton and other plant fibers, which are mainly cellulose, and akin to silk, another animal fiber composed primarily of protein.
Most wool used by the textile industry comes from sheep. Wool is also obtained from goats, camelids, rabbits, and several other mammals, although the names used for these fibres vary between industries and legal systems. After collection, wool is sorted and cleaned before it is carded or combed and made into yarn, felt, insulation, fertilizer, or other products.
Wool is usually approximately circular in cross-section. Fibre diameter, staple length, crimp, strength, and colour vary by breed, age, nutrition, and position on the animal. The appearance of a bundle of wool depends on more than just the diameter of its fibres: their number, alignment, colour, crimp, and degree of compression all matter too. Early optical grading was therefore better suited to comparing similarly prepared samples than to absolute measurement. The Lichtwaage was built around this comparative principle, pairing a transmitted-light scale with a separate mechanical indication. Reprinted with minor revisions. Wet wool is generally weaker than dry wool, unlike many plant fibres. Published values describe particular wool types and test conditions rather than a universal range.
Current evidence does not identify wool fibre itself as a cutaneous allergen. Coarse fibres, especially those at or above about 30–32 micrometres, can cause mechanical irritation and itching. Contact allergy to lanolin or processing chemicals is a separate condition and is uncommon in modern wool garments.
Vegetable matter in commercial wool is often removed by chemical carbonization. In less-processed wools, vegetable matter may be removed by hand and some of the lanolin left intact through the use of gentler detergents. This semigrease wool can be worked into yarn and knitted into particularly Aran jumper, such as those of the Aran Islands fishermen. Lanolin removed from wool is widely used in Cosmetics products such as .
| Fine, uniform and very dense | ||
| Fine, uniform and strong | ||
| Short and irregular, lower quality | ||
| Shorter staple, open and less strong | ||
| Longer, stronger staple | ||
| Short, tender, matted and dirty | ||
| Stiff, very coarse, rough and kempy | ||
| Short, irregular and faulty | ||
| Very strong, coarse and hairy | ||
| Very coarse, kempy and dirty | ||
| Source: | ||
The quality of wool is determined by its fiber diameter, crimp, yield, color, and staple strength. Fiber diameter is the single most important wool characteristic determining quality and price. At the start of the twentieth century, efforts to make fineness assessment more reproducible sometimes relied on properties that could be checked outside a laboratory. At the Icelandic wool-export station of Kolkuós there has been experimentation with combining the resistance of a small fibre sample with an optical comparison of its fineness. Before instrumental testing became common, fineness was assessed by comparing the appearance and handle of prepared samples with reference wools.
The finest and most valuable wool comes from Merino Domestic sheep. Merino wool is typically 90–115 mm (3.5–4.5 in) in length and is very fine.(between 12 and 24 microns). Because of this, Merinos are typically graded separately from other breeds:
| +Merinos |
| Ultrafine Merino |
| Superfine Merino |
| Fine Merino |
| Medium Merino |
| Strong Merino |
| +Breeds |
| 21–26 microns, white, long |
| 27–31 microns, , etc. |
| 32–35 microns |
| 23–34 microns, typically lacks luster and brightness. Examples, Aussiedown, Dorset Horn, Suffolk, etc. |
| >36 microns |
| 35–45 microns |
In the United States, three classifications of wool are named in the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939.Robert E. Freer. "The Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939." Temple Law Quarterly. 20.1 (July 1946). p. 47. Reprinted at ftc.gov. Retrieved 1 May 2016. Wool is "the fiber from the fleece of the sheep or lamb or hair of the Angora or Cashmere goat (and may include the so-called specialty fibers from the hair of the camel, alpaca, llama, and vicuna) which has never been reclaimed from any woven or felted wool product". "Virgin wool" and "new wool" are also used to refer to such never used wool. There are two categories of recycled wool (also called reclaimed or shoddy wool). "Reprocessed wool" identifies "wool which has been woven or felted into a wool product and subsequently reduced to a fibrous state without having been used by the ultimate consumer". "Reused wool" refers to such wool that has been used by the ultimate consumer.
Current United States law groups both pre-consumer and post-consumer fibre returned from a woven, knitted, or felted product under the label "recycled wool". The European Union uses a different legal definition and permits terms equivalent to "virgin wool" or "fleece wool" only when the fibre has not previously been part of a finished product and has not undergone damaging processing.
The Super S system used for fine wool fabrics describes maximum mean fibre diameter, not yarn length per unit mass. For example, Super 100 wool has a mean fibre diameter of 18.75 micrometres or finer, and each increase of ten in the S number lowers the limit by 0.5 micrometre.
Terms based on production method also vary. Fleece wool or virgin wool generally describes new fibre taken from a living animal. Pulled or skin wool is removed from the skins of slaughtered animals, while wool recovered from textile waste is known as recycled, reclaimed, shoddy, or mungo according to its source and processing. Animal-specific names include cashmere, mohair, alpaca, qiviut, vicuña, and yak fibre. These names do not always fall within the legal definition of wool in a particular country. (2026). 9783871508486, Deutscher Fachverlag. ISBN 9783871508486
In the central Andes, people used wool from wild and domesticated camelids by about 5000 BC. Woven wool is documented in Peru from about 2500 BC, and dyed wool appears in the Paracas textile tradition by about 800 BC. Brockhaus Enzyklopädie, 19th ed., vol. 24, 1994, p. 336; Wolfgang Haberland, Amerikanische Archäologie, WBG, 1991, pp. 180, 214. In North America, the Chilkat Tlingit used mountain-goat wool for woven blankets, while Navajo weavers combined sheep wool with an older cotton tradition.Hans Läng, Kulturgeschichte der Indianer Nordamerikas, Gondrom, 1993, pp. 304, 378. In parts of Central Asia, Mongolia, and China, wool was long used more extensively for felt, carpets, and fleeces than for woven cloth. The history of goat fibres is less well documented; cashmere is combed from the seasonal undercoat, while selective breeding gave the Angora goat a fleece resembling that of wool sheep.Norbert Benecke, Der Mensch und seine Haustiere, Theiss, 1994, pp. 137, 237–238.
A great deal of the value of woollen textiles was in the dyeing and finishing of the woven product. In each of the centers of the textile trade, the manufacturing process came to be subdivided into a collection of trades, overseen by an entrepreneur in a system called by the English the "putting-out" system, or "cottage industry", and the Verlagssystem by the Germans. In this system of producing wool cloth, once perpetuated in the production of , the entrepreneur provides the raw materials and an advance, the remainder being paid upon delivery of the product. Written contracts bound the artisans to specified terms. Fernand Braudel traces the appearance of the system in the 13th-century economic boom, quoting a document of 1275. The system effectively bypassed the guilds' restrictions. In the same year, 1275, the English crown had imposed an export tax on wool called the "Great Custom".
By the end of the 14th century, Italy predominated in the European wool trade. Before the flowering of the Renaissance, the Medici and other great banking houses of Florence had built their wealth and banking system on their textile industry based on wool, overseen by the Arte della Lana, the wool guild: wool-textile interests guided Florentine policies. The Florentine wool guild, Arte della Lana, sent imported English wool to the San Martino convent for processing, while Italian wool from Abruzzo and Spanish merino wools were processed at Garbo workshops. Abruzzo wool had once been the most accessible for the Florentine guild, until improved relations with merchants in Iberia made merino wool more available. Francesco Datini, the "merchant of Prato", established in 1383 an Arte della Lana for that small Tuscan city. In the 15th century Pisa established a factory "which would export its cloths to the Crimea in exchange for Russian furs".
Superwash wool (or washable wool) technology first appeared in the early 1970s, producing wool that has been specially treated so it is machine washable and may be tumble-dried. This wool is produced using an acid bath that removes the "scales" from the fiber, or by coating the fiber with a polymer that prevents the scales from attaching to each other and causing shrinkage. This process results in a fiber that holds longevity and durability better than synthetic materials, while retaining garment shape. Superwash Wool Retrieved on 10 November 2008
Traditional descriptions divide the fleece hairs into four groups: þel, tog, white kemp, and reddish-yellow kemp. Þel accounts for about 88% of the individual hairs but, because its fibres are short and fine, about half of the fleece weight. Its irregular crimp gives yarn considerable bulk and traps air. Tog is straighter and resembles flax in some traditional uses. Wool varies with the sheep's age and sex: lambswool is the finest, while wool from older rams is usually coarser.
Domestic wool processing normally began after the autumn slaughter season and continued during winter. Until after the Second World War, much Icelandic wool was washed on farms. Urine was collected as an alkaline detergent and mixed with water, commonly in a ratio of one to two. In one method the liquid was warmed to about and the wool was moved through it without overheating. In another, larger quantities were pressed by foot into a barrel of warm washing liquid and left for one or two hours. The wool was then rinsed in the sea or running water and spread on fields to dry.Jóhannes Jónsson, "Þjóðhættir á Ströndum", Strandapósturinn, vol. 16, 1982, pp. 12–14.
After washing, white fleece rich in þel was reserved for underwear. Naturally coloured wool was used for better socks, mittens, shawls, stripes, and decoration; yellowed or tog-rich wool went into coarser outer clothing. Matted and waste wool was used in ropes and girths. Wool washing was largely women's work in rural Iceland. Home washing declined as people moved to towns and factories at Iðunn, Gefjun, and Álafoss installed washing machinery.Magnús Guðmundsson, Ull verður gull: ullariðnaður Íslendinga á síðari hluta 19. aldar og á 20. öld, Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1988, pp. 96–98.
The unspun carded strand known as lopi combines tog and þel. It can be knitted directly in two or more strands. The circular-yoked lopapeysa developed during the 1940s and had acquired its familiar form by the late 1950s. Its patterning drew on several imported traditions, particularly Swedish Bohus knitting, as well as Greenlandic and Norwegian designs; no single creator is documented. The sweater became an export product during the 1960s, declined in popularity during the following decade, and returned to prominence in Icelandic fashion after 2003, when shorter and more fitted versions appeared.
Wadmal was Iceland's main early export and also served as a regulated measure of value. Processed wool was still the country's principal export in the seventeenth century. The share exported as raw wool grew during the nineteenth century, when it came to exceed half of Icelandic wool exports. Household production continued into the twentieth century. The introduction of the first wool-processing machine in 1884 began a gradual mechanization, and production shifted substantially to factories around the end of the Second World War.
In the United States, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado have large commercial sheep flocks, including Rambouillet sheep. Small flocks of specialist breeds also supply the hand-spinning market.
Animal rights groups have noted issues with the production of wool, such as mulesing.
The British Wool Marketing Board, trading as British Wool, operates a central system that collects, grades, promotes, and sells fleece from about 30,000 registered producers in the United Kingdom.
In New Zealand, much strong wool is sold through auctions, while contracts and direct sales are more prominent in parts of the fine-wool sector.
United States sheep producers market wool with private or cooperative wool warehouses, but wool pools are common in many states. In some cases, wool is pooled in a local market area, but sold through a wool warehouse. Wool offered with objective measurement test results is preferred. Imported apparel wool and carpet wool goes directly to central markets, where it is handled by the large merchants and manufacturers. Wool Marketing. sheepusa.org
Worsted is a strong, long-staple, combing wool yarn with a hard surface.
Woolen is a soft, short-staple, carding wool yarn typically used for knitting. In traditional weaving, woolen weft yarn (for softness and warmth) is frequently combined with a worsted warp yarn for strength on the loom.
After the yarn is made, it can be mixed with other materials and then woven or knit into the desired product.
Wool's thermal resistance supports its use in clothing for both cold and hot climates. Bedouin and Tuareg clothing includes wool for insulation from daytime heat and cold nights. Semigrease wool can also be spun into water-resistant mittens and sweaters, including garments associated with the Aran Islands. A small study of woollen underwear reported fewer heat and sweat rashes, which the researchers associated with moisture absorption. ABC Rural Radio: Woodhams, Dr. Libby, New research shows woollen underwear helps prevent rashes Retrieved 2010-3-24
Regional wool textiles include fulled Loden cloth in the Alpine countries, Harris Tweed from the Outer Hebrides, the Icelandic lopapeysa, and wool carpets such as Anatolian carpets and Gabbeh. The Super S scale is commonly encountered in fine suiting, while coarser durable yarns are used for rugs and upholstery.
Wool as well as cotton has also been traditionally used for cloth diapers. Wool fiber exteriors are hydrophobic (repel water) and the interior of the wool fiber is hygroscopic (attracts water); this makes a wool garment suitable cover for a wet diaper by inhibiting wicking, so outer garments remain dry. Wool felted and treated with lanolin is water resistant, air permeable, and slightly antibacterial, so it resists the buildup of odor. Some modern cloth diapers use felted wool fabric for covers, and there are several modern commercial knitting patterns for wool diaper covers.
As an animal protein, wool can be used as a soil fertilizer, being a slow-release source of nitrogen.
Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology school of fashion and textiles have discovered a blend of wool and Kevlar, the synthetic fiber widely used in body armor, was lighter, cheaper and worked better in damp conditions than Kevlar alone. Kevlar, when used alone, loses about 20% of its effectiveness when wet, so required an expensive waterproofing process. Wool increased friction in a vest with 28–30 layers of fabric, to provide the same level of bullet resistance as 36 layers of Kevlar alone.
In 2002, the Ermenegildo Zegna Vellus Aureum Trophy was launched for wool that is 13.9 microns or finer. Wool from Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa may enter, and a winner is named from each country. In April 2008, New Zealand won the Ermenegildo Zegna Vellus Aureum Trophy for the first time with a fleece that measured 10.8 microns. This contest awards the winning fleece weight with the same weight in gold as a prize, hence the name.
In 2010, an ultrafine, 10-micron fleece, from Windradeen, near Pyramul, New South Wales, won the Ermenegildo Zegna Vellus Aureum International Trophy.Country Leader, 26 April 2010, Finest wool rewarded, Rural Press, North Richmond
Since 2000, Loro Piana has awarded a cup for the world's finest bale of wool that produces just enough fabric for 50 tailor-made suits. The prize is awarded to an Australian or New Zealand wool grower who produces the year's finest bale.Australian Wool Network News, Issue #19, July 2008
The New England Merino Field Days are held every second year. The 2026 event took place at the Uralla Showground and presented Merino and meat-sheep studs from the region. Armidale has also hosted wool fashion awards and expos featuring clothing, handicrafts, shearing, and working-dog events.
The Australian Sheep and Wool Show is held in Bendigo, Victoria. The 2026 show is scheduled for 17 to 19 July and is to include sheep and fleece competitions, shearing and wool-handling events, fashion displays, and trade exhibits. In 2008, the fleece competition received 475 entries from all Australian states, with first and second prizes going to Northern Tablelands fleeces.
Apparel
Any wool finer than 25 microns can be used for garments, while coarser grades are used for outerwear or rugs. The finer the wool, the softer it is, while coarser grades are more durable and less prone to pilling. Like silk, the proteinaceous nature of wool requires special detergents when being cleaned because laundry detergents made to clean cellulose-based fabrics often contain stain-removing enzymes that digest protein.
Other Uses
In addition to clothing, wool has been used for blankets, , Horse blanket, saddle cloths, carpeting, insulation and upholstery. Dyed wool can be used to create other forms of art such as wet and needle felting. Wool felt covers piano hammers, and it is used to absorb odors and noise in heavy machinery and stereo speakers. Ancient Greeks lined their helmets with felt, and Roman legionnaires used breastplates made of wool felt.
Events
A buyer of Merino wool, Ermenegildo Zegna, has offered awards for Australian wool producers. In 1963, the first Ermenegildo Zegna Perpetual Trophy was presented in Tasmania for growers of "Superfine skirted Merino fleece". In 1980, a national award, the Ermenegildo Zegna Trophy for Extrafine Wool Production (later renamed the Ermenegildo Zegna Unprotected Wool Trophy), was launched. In 1998, an Ermenegildo Zegna Protected Wool Trophy was launched for fleece from sheep coated for around nine months of the year.
See also
Production
Processing
Refined products
Organizations
Miscellaneous wool and animal textiles
Inorganic wool
External links
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