A COMBING WOOL

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 16, 24 February 1914, Page 11

A COMBING WOOL

WHAT IT IS. Taking all the people connected with the great wool industry, says the author of '' Hawkesworth 's Australian Sheep and Wool," whether in its production, its preparation for the market, or in its uses, there is no more familiar term known than —a combing wool. The' name combing, is derived from the process the wool undergoes during its manipulation in the early stages of manufacture, when the wool fibres have to be straightened out to their fullest or true length and arranged parallel. This is done in a very similar manner when we comb our own hair with the ordinary hair comb, only the wool is straightened, out by the aid of, a fine steel-teeth comb, set in rows,v through which the wool passed—combed—hence j. the name, combing wool. •

~, For this process of combing, or straightening, the wool -best -suited must have a fair length of staple, be perfectly sound, so that the topmaker —wool-comber —can comb it, leaving a lengthy top or silver of combed wool, which is afterwards passed on to the spinner, who spins il/into a yarn or thread. For this purpose, and to obtain .the most satisfactory results, evenness of fineness, or diameter of fibre, equal and fair length of staple and soundness are the prime factors, and' are absolutely neeessaiy for the spinning of any given counts or quality of yarns. Length or depth of staple is 'of the greatest importance, as ■• it would be an,, utter sibility to comb a top of eve'n length out of a sort of wool containing long and short staples. From a wool-comb-er's point it is a question as to whether soundness of fibre should not take precedence,oyer all other wool properties when -selecting wool for combing purposes. .- No unsound or weak wool can be combed with advantage, such being too frail or delicate to stand the tension of the combing process, therefore causing too great a loss to become profitable.

When a wool is sound, it is a sure indication that all the other wool properties are in a healthy and most satisfactory state, and that the sheep have been in perfect health, have had -sufficient food and water during the natural or twelve months' growth. It will thus be seen that soundness and length are the two most essential properties in a combing wool. All wool goes in at the mouth, and the great majority of sheep, even with a moderate supply of food, will yield a .sound, healthy fleece of combing wool. Unsoundness is about the greatest scourge a wool can have, and implies that the poor unfortunate sheep have become so impoverished that their fleeces are so tender, and have become so weak, whatever the length, that they cannot correctly be claimed as a combing wool. The structure of the fibres of the combing wool varies from that of the pure clothing wool, not only in length, but the crimps are fewer, and any fibre having less than 23 crimps to the inch, which are more undulating, or wavelike, are considered to be combing wools.

Formerly only the deep-grown English wools, such as the Lincoln, Leicester, Cotswold, etc., were considered combings, which, frqjn their lengthy staples,' were alone capable of passing through the combing machines. A few years later further., improvements in machinery were introduced with the view to comb wool of shorter length, which were most successful, causing a revolution in this part of "the manufacturing. At th'e present time there are machines capable of ecmbing wool, however short. It may be said that the manufacturers, when manipulating wool in its early stages of manufacture, really determine what is a combing wool. However, to us in this great wool-growing country, where it is prepared for the market and not for the manufacturer, something more definite is required than "a wool which can-be combed." We understand when the term combing is used that there must be some distinction between, it and a clothing. That great distin-, guishing point is in its length—the longer wool of a clip being a combing, and the shorter the clothing. There is no hard and fast rule as to the length of combing; the thumb rule is an oldfashioned method in deciding between a combing or clothing. . Formerly, it J was occasionally seen, and is now on some stations, that the wool-classer measured, and measures, the w-sol by the aid of his thumb. Any sufficiently long to reach from the tip of his thumb to the first joint he puts "into combing, any not coming up to that standard goes into the clothing. There are no other points to be considered besides length in the various types of combing wools, and, as in all other wool properties, the differences, are-in degrees. \'" v For a typical combing, the wool must have a fair length, be particularlysound, Avith freedom, elasticity, as free as possible from soil, in the shape of' a mushy, cloudy,' or kind of crossed' or interwoven growth, and should haye, a good, bright colour. Taking the other extreme, an unde- (| sirable type of combing is anything; hard, stiff, or unyielding, inclined to' tenderness, mushy, fuzzy, open, want? ing in body, with fibres intermixed ,pr. dossed so as not to" pass through the, minute steel teeth of the comb freely, also of an indifferent colour. A manuxactttt'e* avoidsvthis class of combing, iu it ddes not; eojme within his idea

as a wool adapted for that process, except for inferior purposes, foi making a cheap, low class of goods. Top.—The name given to wool after it has undergone the process of combing, when all the noils, knots, and moits arc combed out or removed, afterwards taking the form of a ribbon or silver, and rolled into a large ball of pure wool. In |J|is form all the loose, mushy, downy, faulty fibres have been renfoved by the delicate steel teeth of the combs, leaving but one long ribbon of pure wool, with all tlie fibres lying free and parallel, ready for further manufacturing stages.