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16.2 Micron
One of the key points of the Super 150's Merino Extra project Fun is the very high quality of the product without compromise. In this direction, very clear choices have been made, both as regards the choice of the raw material and as regards the yarns obtained from it.
The wools used were chosen from those coming from Australian Extrafine Merino farms . Sheep of this breed have a very long and very noble history. Currently, the selection of the best specimens has made it possible to produce garments of exceptional quality and high value; just think of the world record of AUD $ 450,000 paid for the JC&S Luster 53 "ram" [2] sold at the 1988 Adelaide Merino ram sale during the industry's heyday.
Merinos wools have three qualities that are highly appreciated by the market:
Softness
Moisture management through the recovery rate
Temperature control through the heat-insulating effect
These three characteristics are directly related to the fineness of the fiber; the finer the fibers, the more these three characteristics are accentuated. The fineness of the fibers are expressed in microns and, as we shall see, are strictly regulated by special tables.
Softness is related to the diameter of the fiber because, the finer the fibers, the more docile they are to bend when in contact with the nerve endings of our body.
The management of the humidity rate relates to the fineness of the fiber through hygroscopicity, the finest fibers can absorb up to a third of their own weight of water vapor without giving a "wet" feeling. The graph of “The Woolmark Company” highlights this characteristic of wool compared to other fibers
Temperature control takes place through the ability of the extra-fine Merino fibers to trap the air between them, slowing down the speed of heat transfer, manifesting the effect known as thermocoibence. This passage is taken from the official website of "The Woolmark Company"
Insulation: The crimp in the wool fibers makes them stand apart from each other, trapping air between the fibers and slowing down the rate of heat transfer. Still air is one of the best natural insulators and the ability to trap still air in the crimps means wool can help insulate against heat and cold.
This apparent conflict (coolness v warmth) is possible because wool fibers can be made into very different types of fabrics. In hot conditions we wear thin wool fabrics, which trap little or no air and in cold conditions we wear thicker bulky wool fabrics, which trap insulating air pockets.
Wool is a natural fiber obtained from the fleece of sheep and this has 2 consequences:
extreme variety of fineness of wool between different sheep breeds
variability of the characteristics of the fleece between the various areas of the body of the same sheep.
Obviously the textile supply chain tends to group the fibers in batches as homogeneous as possible, but it follows that we can only define a "medium fineness" of a fabric.
The average fineness of a fabric defines the median value of the diameter of the fibers that compose it and is expressed in microns. The fibers that come from Merino sheep have a fineness that can vary between 25 μ and 12 μ.
To have a practical comparison, human hair can vary from 30 to 40 μ and more.
One of the most important aspects to understand is that when ordinary and coarse fibers come into contact with our touch, they do not flex and tend to irritate hair follicles and nerve endings in our hand. This tends to give us a generally unpleasant feeling of discomfort. Merino wool fibers, on the other hand, are very flexible and therefore give us a pleasant tactile sensation.
In an important study conducted by Eugenio Ramella in one of the most exhaustive essays on the subject the author tried to give objectivity to this relationship and the results were amazing. It was empirically demonstrated that, as the diameter of the fibers decreased, the tactile sensation varied exponentially.
The most evident aspect of the study is that the sensation of pleasantness increases exponentially greater as very fine fibers approach, to the touch the difference that is perceived between a wool of 30 microns and 24 microns is less than the difference that an expert can seize between a 17 micron wool compared to a 16 micron one.
This justifies and explains the research of wool mills specialized in extra-fine fabrics in finding ever more precious wools to produce jeweled fabrics.
To better understand how to orient ourselves among the various labels and wordings present on the fabrics, we must however take a leap into the past. In the late 18th century, British wool traders used to describe how fine their wares were, using largely subjective jargon based on terms such as: low, medium, fine, super, freshly made and so on.
As weavers and consumers needed more objective terminology with which to evaluate fleeces, a process was devised in the city of Bradford, England, which became known as the English worsted yarn counting system or more generally, the Bradford system.
This system involved some experts estimating how many 560-yard skeins of single-ply yarn a good spinner could make using one pound of "top". (combed wool clean with the fibers all parallelized by combing). The finer the wool fiber, the more skeins could be spun. From one pound of "80", for example, it was estimated that eighty such skeins could be made.
This method was very successful, in fact only a long time later, in 1968, was introduced by " IWTO, International Wool Textile Organization " a standardized and objective system for the evaluation of wool that assigns an "S" value to the finest wools, not more through an estimate but through a measurement obtained on special microscopes.
Basically, this method tells us that, the larger the number "S" is, the finer the average of the fibers that make up the fabric are; this is the comparison table.
However, note that very high grades above 150 S are extremely fine, they are very refined jewels but much more delicate and sensitive.
After a short time, there may be signs of wear and pilling on pressure and rubbing points such as knees, elbows and where the seat belt of your car rests.
