Merino - Fiber properties
Fibre Properties
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The composition of wool fibres is very complex. That is why mankind has still not yet managed to produce an artificial fibre with the same good properties as wool. In simple terms, wool fibre is made of protein molecules, whose chemical structure give the wool its typical properties.
Fibre thickness
One of the quality features of wool is its fibre thickness or fineness. This is specified in microns (thousandths of a millimetre). The wool fibres have different thicknesses, even if they come from one and the same sheep. Merino wool has a fibre thickness of 15-25 microns, normal sheep's wool goes from 30 to 50 microns. By comparison, a human hair measures 50 -100 µm. Large fibre diameters, like those found on classic sheep's wool, can irritate the skin's nerve cells. When the wool fibres are thin enough, they bend on contact with the skin and are felt not as itchy but soft by the nerve ends. We therefore only use merino wool with a fibre thickness of 17 microns. Finer merino wool becomes uneconomical to work with because of the high price.
