Where does textile raw material wool come from? What is the market price per jin? What types are there? How is it different from wool fleece? How can you tell real from fake?

Wool is the hair on sheep, and because it can be processed into wool sweaters, wool quilts, wool blankets and other textiles, sheep are widely raised for it. So where does wool come from? What is the market price per jin? What types are there? How is it different from wool fleece? How can you tell real from fake?

Origin introduction:

1. The Nanjing Wool Market, currently the largest wool trading market in China, is growing ever more renowned. The Nanjing Wool Market was formerly the wool base of the former Ministry of Textile Industry, a wool auction trading center located in Nanjing, established in 1988. In 1992, with the approval of the System Reform Committee of the former Ministry of Textile Industry and the Jiangsu Provincial System Reform Committee, it was renamed “Nanjing Wool Market”.

2. The Nanjing Wool Market has three service and management departments under it, and possesses a large modern wool warehouse, and can directly organize auction trading, entrusted purchase and sales, warehousing and transport, and related technical consulting on site. Since the market was established, it has organized nationwide wool information exchanges and raw material auction fairs every year, attracting numerous representatives from the pastoral, industrial and commercial sectors, and has won praise from the industry. In summary, wool trading and auctions, information transmission, and study and training are the main functions of the Nanjing Wool Market.

3. Since its establishment, the Nanjing Wool Market has consistently undertaken the trading task for domestic wool from wool production bases nationwide. During the trading process, it has always adhered to the principles of “pre-sale preparation, objective inspection, clean wool pricing, auction bidding” for wool entering the market, organizing sales and promoting the healthy development of domestic wool circulation.

Latest market prices:

1. Changshu Xinguang Wool Top Processing Co., Ltd.’s Australian wool top quotes are stable; currently 70s Australian wool top is quoted at around 87,000 yuan/ton on the market. Australian wool market: on Tuesday, the market opened on a positive note, and a batch of good-model New Zealand wool was very popular with buyers; although prices are hard to compare, it was higher than the price of Australian wool at the previous auction.

2. Coarse wool was hit the hardest, with prices falling by 15~20 Australian cents. Good-model wool continued to be popular with buyers, with prices remaining unchanged. This week’s auction supply was 46,084 bales (-2,635 bales), and the unsold rate was 12.8% (+0.8%).

Types introduction:

1. Classification by linear density and length, which is also the main classification method. Fine wool: the best variety of fine wool is the wool from Merino sheep. Australian Merino fine wool has a diameter of under 25μm, with a staple length of 5-300px. It is mainly used to make high-grade clothing materials.

2. Semi-fine wool: homogeneous wool with an average diameter of 15~37μm and a length of 5~15 cm, such as the British Southdown sheep and Dorset sheep. It is a weak wool type in China. Long wool: sheep wool characterized mainly by extra-long length (15~30 cm) and bright luster, with an average diameter greater than 36μm; typical examples are Lincoln wool and Leicester wool.

3. Crossbred wool: wool from crosses of Merino fine-wool sheep and long-wool sheep, with length and fineness being a compromise between its parents. Famous examples include Corriedale, Columbia and Romney wool. Besides being used to make clothing materials, the above three types of wool are also used to make carpets, bed blankets and curtains; the coarser and longer ones can be made into carpets, pulp blankets, plush and so on.

Difference from cashmere:

1. Different sources: cashmere and wool grow on different kinds of sheep——wool comes from sheep, while only goats have cashmere. Different collection methods: collecting wool is like getting a haircut, simply shaving it all off with shears, and each sheep can produce several kilograms of wool per year; cashmere, however, grows at the base of the coarse hair of goats.

2. When collecting cashmere, a specially made iron comb is used to comb it out little by little like combing hair, and only a few dozen grams can be harvested from each goat. Different fiber fineness: cashmere has a diameter of 14~16 micrometers, much finer than wool. Different fiber morphology: the scales of wool are pointed, while the scales of cashmere are round; cashmere has no medullary layer.

Methods for identifying real from fake:

Look: intuitively, wool products are relatively soft and full of elasticity, with high specific gravity and soft color. Fake wool, on the other hand, looks gaudy and lacks luster, dull and lightless, with no sense of beauty at all.

Touch: feeling real and fake wool with your hands also gives a completely different feel. Real wool is fully elastic, feels smooth and waxy, and feels warm and pleasant; fake wool, however, has no elasticity at all, feels rough and harsh, and feels cold to the touch.

Smell: when real wool is held close to the nose and sniffed, there is an obvious smell of mutton drifting from it, which disappears once taken away. Fake wool, however, no matter how near or far, gives off no smell at all.

Wash: real and fake wool can also be distinguished by washing in water. After real wool is washed in water, it is stretched by the gravity of the water and is relatively elastic, and after drying and being used it returns to its original shape; fake wool, however, after being washed in water, has no elasticity and will not be stretched, and its shape before and after washing does not change.

Burn method

When real wool burns, it smokes and bubbles as it burns, accompanied by the stench of burning hair, with much ash, forming lustrous black brittle clumps that can be pinched into powder by hand and scattered. Fake wool, after being set alight, shows clumping, completely different from the powder form of real wool.

Difference from artificial wool/high-imitation wool

Part the place where the hair joins the skin: if each hair follicle has 3-4 hairs evenly distributed on the leather board, it is natural fur; if there are obvious warp and weft lines or a fabric base shape, it is artificial fur. In addition, lift the fur by hand; if it cannot be pulled, it is natural fur, while if it can be pulled up, it is artificial fur;

Fur and leather in one, as the name suggests, refers to sheepskin fur in which the leather and wool are naturally one piece, with natural consistency, which is something that boots with cow down glued together and a wool lining do not have.