The Long and Complex Process of Wool Processing

[Music] Farm World sheep's wool is one of the most widely used natural fibers in the world prized for its softness warmth and versatility it's considered a renewable resource because it's produced Naturally by sheep through their annual growth cycle and is collected by shearing the sheep sheep shearing is done about once or twice a year and before the warmer Seasons to prevent heat stress and to allow wool to regrow before winter but before shearing can occur they first have to be rounded up into holding pens and sorted into groups this involves checking the health of the sheep and separating them based on wool quality in color once this initial sorting is completed the Sheep are then ready to undergo [Music] shearing skilled workers use electric shears to remove the wool from the Sheep this this process needs to be done carefully to produce highquality fleece and to avoid any cuts a typical Shearer can Shear up to 300 or more sheep per day at about 1 to 2 minutes per sheep most important thing to learn when shearing a sheep is how to hold the Sheep if the Sheep is nice and comfortable it'll be relaxed and it makes it a lot easier to share the Sheep we always share our sheep the same way in New Zealand we start on the underside of the sheep and remove the belly wool first this wool is always very short and very bad ly stained we have to keep this separate from the rest of the wool because it's not worth as much as the main fleece now we've got the belly wo removed we can head into the crutch wo this wo is also very badly stained and needs to be kept separate as well now we've got the crutch out of the sheet we can head into the good wool now the Shar is now heading into the under mine of the sheep this is where the good wool starts you can see it's nice and white this is the under mine now this goes right up the Sheep's tail bone and now he's into the blind blow of the sheet this is done entirely by field he canot see what you're doing here he's slowly liing the Sheep down [Music] now and he's into the long blow this runs right up the Sheep's backbone the full length of the sheep he's on the last side of the sheep now removing the last of the wool around the the Sheep's face making sure to remove all the wool from around the Sheep's ears and eyes if you don't do this the sheep can become wool blind because the wool just keeps on [Music] growing last bit of wool and he's finished and about 300 more to go for this sheerer today and for all that hard work he's going to earn about $2 a [Music] sheep after shear ing the fleece is laid out on a skirting table skirting involves removing undesirable parts of the fleece such as stained or heavily soiled areas and excessive vegetable matter once skirting is completed the clean fleece is then rolled tightly and packed into wool Bales these Bales are usually standardized for ease of transportation to the wool [Music] cleaners once the wool Bales have been delivered for cleaning and processing the wool is removed from the tightly packed Bales and spread apart for easier cleaning the wool then goes through a machine which pulls it apart and air rates the wool which removes any small particles of dirt or vegetation this is to prevent dirt going through the washer and minimizing water usage you guys look for some contaminants over there and then that wool is is brought over here with a with a skid steer and put into this contraption what is this this is an opener it's got teeth at the top you're just and it's got a great that's open so as it's opening the dirt can fall out of the bottom so it's got three different places where it's Blended and then it goes through that opener gets the dirt out and then it goes on to the Scout process so we're just trying to save water all right so lad what do we have here this is the dirt that's coming out of the bottom of the openers it's basically vegetable matter short fiber and dirt it's what it is so we're just trying to keep this from getting in the water what it Mount once the wool is finished on the opener machine it moves on to being scoured and washed which washes the raw fleece to remove grease dirt and other impurities all right so so tell us what we've got here lad this is the this is the first Bowl so first Bowl it goes from opened up you know just raw grease wo into this first bowl and that water's anywhere from 170 to 180° and it gets so F add into it so we're just trying I mean this this bowl catches the majority of the dirt right here tell us what we have here and how that helps that process well you have a press at the end of each Bowl that's basically you know that and that's this is our dirtiest water so we're trying to squeeze that water back out before it goes into the next the next Bowl we don't want it carrying dirt over so we leave it in this bowl here so each Bowl has a press and the Clean Water Works its way in down here what we call the rinch bowl that'll be the cleanest water and it works its way back you know these lines are designed to run 24 hours a day and you know 7 days a week so L this this is the third Bowl in the line what's what's different about this one compared to the fourth well your first three have soap added to them and they're trying you're trying to get the grease off and then in the last three bowls you're rinching it out you know there's a lot of people that think oh more soap more soap you know that's cleaner but there's a fine line between not enough soap and too much soap because if you can't get it rinsed back out well then it shows up just like the grease does as you know a residual grease so it's bad for processing the lad we're on the the fourth Bowl here this is the drain off the fourth Bowl we noticed that the water's gotten a lot cleaner you know at this stage is it going to get cleaner all the way to the end it will by the time you get to the last bowl I'm not going to say you can take a bath in it but you can see through it you know you want your cleanest water right before it goes out that's your final wrinch and you you know you're trying to get the last bit of soap and you know whatever's left in the wool out of it before it goes onto the dryer so this is the the final Bowl bow is this where you evaluate what's coming out and as you mentioned before the water coming out of this last bowl you it's pretty clear there's not a whole lot left there so no you don't want a whole lot left here if if it is that means you're washing some really low yield and you know dirty wools so we're at the end of the scouring train uh that wools got to be dried what do we got here that's a big all that is is a hot air dryer uh steam heats the air and then it's got big fans in the back and it's a drum dryer so that you get more surface area the old school dryers were just a flat belt but then you just had the length of the dryer you know there wasn't as much surface area so these are drum dri that wool is actually going up and over six big drums inside there just to make more use of the you know of a shorter dryer all right so this is wool coming out of the dryer what do we what do we do now before it needs to be rebelled you know we have Pickers that sit here on this type w that we're running right now there's not a lot to take out but you know specific wool types will need you know we have to watch for black fiber or pain or whatever it may be so we have Pickers here that are taking out anything that doesn't need to be in it before it goes on and from here it goes through two different dusters and through the bailing so wool came in in bals and goes out in Baals so is this the last St for you this is this is the last age as it comes down we'll bail it those bailes will add average 630 to 650 uh every baell that comes out we core it and do our own uh moisture and grease test on it and then it's put on the scale Wade written down there's a cover put over it and then it's moved to the warehouse to wait for a Tru starting in the picking house we begin to separate the Bales and weigh out the amount of fiber needed for a project a special scale allows us to blend grades of wool or different colors for example a blend of natural white wool and stock dyed black wool creates a heathered gray wool the process of the picking house also gives buoyance back to the compressed fiber preparing it for carding carding is the process of combining raw wool through a series of barrels wrapped with wire bristles the last Barrel's fine bristles are shaved to create a sheet of wool that sheet is is then split into ribbons that will be fed through two rollers applying pressure and motion the ribbons are rolled into loose strands called roving the first stage of yarn the rolls of roving are transferred then to a spinning frame spinning wool helps bind the individual strands of fiber together creating a strong fine thread called yarn this finished yarn will go through one more step before it's woven into fabric the last step of yarn production is coning where the yarn is transferred to cones to begin the weaving process woven yardage has two levels of yarn arranged perpendicularly the warp and the weft the warp is a series of threads one next to another and on average 2500 Ys across it acts as the foundation of the fabric in which the second yarn the weft is woven the colors used in the warp can also help alter the design by using a multicolored warp we create unique stripes and plas when a warp beam is complete it's transferred to a loom for weaving each warp yarn is threaded through the headle or needles of the harness the harness will raise and lower warp threads creating a gap for the weft to be inserted through on a new project this is done manually and can take as long as two business days before the equipment is ready to operate on the Looms the warp and weft are precisely intertwined into the woven yardage next the woven yardage goes to the burler where the fabric is taken off the beam and run through a massive backlight where inspectors look for imperfections or irregularities repairing them with scissors and tweezers finished product that will have a tassel or Fringe are woven with a gap in the fabric where a few inches of warp yarn is left exposed in the weave the fringer gathers sections of the yarn in that Gap twists it together and inserts a thread to hold its shape when the yardage is washed in the next step of the process the raw thread beds will bond together to complete the Fringe fing is the next step and is a process of intentionally shrinking the material using hot water to pull air from the core of the fiber and agitation to encourage the wool to bind in on itself we're able to create a denser Fuller fabric we then wash the yardage using detergents to soften the wool itself treatments for moth resistance and machine washability can also be added during foing solid colored blankets and row are woven in natural white and peace dyed this allows us to adjust to demands for individual colors after drying the fabric either after its fing process or piece dying comes napping similar to the carting Department the Napper uses barrels wrapped in wire bristles this helps soften the fabric giving Loft to the fiber it also helps increase the finished Blanket's ability to insulate by creating small air pockets our final step to finish product are cutting and sewing on third floor the material is cut to individual sized units edges are finished with a surge whip Stitch or tailored hem and labels and hang Tes are added this is also the department that will give a final quality check after 22 steps in as much as 10 days a ferow blanket throw scarf or accessory is finally ready [Music]

Channel: Farm World

Views: 329,848

Keywords: Farm World, Farmworld, Farm World Youtube Channel, sheep shearing, wool yarn processing, how is wool made, shearing sheep, Wool Processing, wool manufacturing

Id: ebMtKVe9Ae0

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024