Wool Fibre

This refers to the soft hair covering of sheep, camel all kinds of animal
hair in their natural state or after treatment that can be used for
spinning or felting. Wool was used by man as clothing in its raw form
in very early stages of human history. The animal skins were used for
protection and decoration. Killing animals to obtain wool lead to the
extinction of some and drying up of the supply.
Cont.

Most wool is now obtained from domesticated sheep, well fed to produce
the best wool. Fleece or clip wool is sheared from live animals. It is superior
to others. Pulled wool is from hides of slaughtered animals and it is more
inferior. Merino sheep less than 7 months old produce the finest wool. It is
produced in Austria, Russia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa,
England etc. Wool is composed of keratin indigestible protein therefore it is
a natural protein fibre.
Production of wool
Shearing;
Fleece can be clipped from the sheep by hand or machine. Fleece is shorn from different parts
of the animal’s body and is kept differently because they are of different grades. i.e the head
and belly produce inferior wool while the shoulder and sides have a superior wool.

Sorting
Fleece is graded and judged for fineness and length i.e soft quality, long fibres. More than 6cm
in length is suitable for fine combing while up to 3cm produces coarse cloth. The length
usually ranges from 2.5cm-15cm depending on the type of the animal and duration between
shearing periods.
Cont..

Scouring
The fleece is washed in warm soapy water several times than rinsed and dried to remove the
natural grease in the fibre, body excretions, dirt and dust. It is then dried in a humid atmosphere
to preserve the elasticity and softness. Natural grease is recovered purified as lanolin used in
cosmetic industry.
Carbonizing
This is an acid process. The scoured wool passes through dilute Sulphuric acid solution, the wool
is then dried at near boiling point of water and as the water evaporates the acid taken up by the
wool becomes more concentrated and burns the vegetable matter. The acid is then neutralized to
stop it from affecting the wool.
 Carding and combing

In carding, the fibres are passed between cylinders with wire like teeth to
remove the remaining vegetable matter e.g twigs. The fibres are disentangled
and made to lie parallel in a film sheet called sliver.
Combing involves passing the slivers formed through a combing machine
where the slivers are laid in a highly parallel order. This arrangement is done
to remove small particles of foreign matter. Combing is done to worsted yarns
only and not woolen. Woolen yarns are only carded because they are preferred
randomly arranged for their end uses.
Cont.
Drawing
The carding and combed fibres are then drawn into slivers and then fine strands
which are wound onto bobbins made into skeins ready for spinning.
Spinning
Here yarn is stretched and twisted to several times its length reducing on its diameter
making it stronger and longer.
Fabric construction
Cloth is made by either weaving, knitting etc
Fulling finish

This finish is peculiar to wool from the loom. After construction, the woolen
fabric is loose and hard in texture. Fulling is done to make the fabric compact
and soft. This is done by applying moisture, heat, and friction. The degree of
fulling depends on the end use of the fabric i.e worsted are less fulled than
woolens.
Physical properties of wool
It is crimpled fine to thick regular fibre. The crimpleness prevents the fibres
from being aligned too closely during spinning therefore warmness : coarser,
longer wool has less crimp, is linear so reflects light more evenly giving wool its
subdued lustre.
 Composition of wool

The chief constituent of the fibre is a protein called keratin. It is the only fibre
containing Sulphur.
Microscopic appearance( cross section and longitudinal section)
It has a rod like structure with a rough surface of overlapping horny scales pointing
towards the tip. There is a dark central line/ canal along the fibre line
Cross section
It is oval in shape. The overlapping cell wall (epithelial cell). They form a distinct
perimeter known as the cuticle around the fibre cross section.
Diagram; Draw here
Identification of wool

It is by the overlapping cell structure and the smell of burnt hair when ignited
leaving an uneasily crushable ash bead. The handle of wool is soft to medium only
the coarser longer fibre wool have a distinct softer lustre.
Felting of wool
This is irreversible shrinkage of material when wool is subjected to agitation in
aqueous solution. Wool felts because of the serrated fibre surface formed by
overlapping epithelial cells or scales.
Felting is accelerated by heat, acid, or alkaline. However, the felting property is
utilized in making felt fabrics directly from fibres without spinning or weaving
them
Wool polymer system
It is a linear keratin polymer with some short scale groups. It has helical
configuration. Its repeating unit is an Amino Acid linked by a peptide bond. It
consists of about 20 different Amino Acids. It is able to stretch and come back to
normal. The polymer system looks like coils. It is extremely amorphous about
75% and not well aligned and scales also help to form air pockets.
Tenacity/ strength
Wool is a weak fibre and becomes about 20% weaker when wet. It also gets
readily distorted when wet. This breaks the inter-polymer forces of attraction
making the fabric weaker when wet than when dry.
Elastic plastic nature (elasticity)

It has very good elastic recovery therefore excellent resilience due to its
crimpleness . When stretched it returns to its original structure because of its
interpolymer linkage and hydrogen bonds. It is the elasticity and resilience that
compensates for the weak wool fibres and gives them more durability than
expected from their strength. However, repeated stretching will cause
deformation.
Handle
It has medium to soft handle due to its crimp and amorphous nature of the
polymer system and keratin configuration.
 Hygroscopic nature

Wool is considered the most hygroscopic (absorbent) of all fibres. It

absorbs moisture without feeling cold or clammy from the atmosphere
and holds as much as 30% of its weight without feeling wet to touch.
This is due to its highly amorphous nature and polarity of its bonds i.e
able to attract water molecules). This means it doesn’t develop static
electricity, however, in dry weather it can develop static electricity
because there are few water molecules to prevent static electricity. It gets
easily distorted when wet because its linkages get hydrolyzed and bonds
weakened.