How the wool industry works
Most people know that wool comes from sheep, but many do not realise that much of the fleece we process comes from animals bred purely for their wool. This explains a recent advertisement from the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) which said 'no animal was killed in the manufacture of this product'!
The BWMB is the monopoly purchaser of all wool from flocks containing over five sheep, but there are many exceptions which apply to minority and rare breeds and for those who add value to their wool. If you want us to process your fleece and are uncertain about the rules, we have agreed a letter with the BWMB that covers the legal ramifications.
No other country has a body like the BWMB which buys most of the UK clip, around 30,000 tonnes from close to 24 million sheep, and mainly supplies the carpet industry.
Some other countries have official industrial bodies, but not state monopolies.
Outside of the UK most European producers compost or burn their wool, which is unhelpfully classified by the European Union as hazardous waste.
Other major producing countries are Australia, New Zealand and China which is the biggest. For the BWMB's international fact sheet, click here.
Critics say the UK system is not politically correct, but they forget that the BWMB is the buyer of last resort and underwrites the price. Although farmers can sell all their fleece, the returns, which used to more than cover the cost of shearing, now only subsidise it.
The wool we process
Wool is the original high-performance fibre. It is used for everything from carpets to coffins, baby clothes and insulation, and British wool fabrics are renowned worldwide for their high quality.
Around 75% of the UK wool clip is most suited to carpets and this is what the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) focus on.
We specialise in fine, lustrous, coloured, rare and minority breed wool, and the Board supports what we do. They have granted us a license and our Blacker Design products are entitled to carry the British Wool logo. Click here to learn more about the sheep breeds we use.
Wool varies in length from 2.4 to 30 centimetres (1 to 12 inches) and in thickness from 11 microns to over 50. In most cases products made from wool of up to 30 microns are comfortable next to the skin, but anything thicker may feel prickly. So will products containing a high proportion of coarse hair (kemp).
The other attributes of wool relate to lustre, natural crimp and colour. A wool product can absorb up to 30% of its natural weight before it becomes soaked. Wool is also a natural fire retardant. To find out more about different kinds of wool and the sheep it comes from please go to our Meet the animals section.
Some fibre is said to be anti-bacterial, but this is disputed. To find out more about the work being done in various international laboratories and the test certificates that are issued, look at the International Wool Textile Organisation web site.
Raw fleece is full of grease, dirt and sweat, less if the sheep have been grazing when it is raining! The grease, or lanolin, helps protect the sheep from the wet.
This is washed out during scouring and results in some weight loss. We considered recovering the lanolin, but the amounts are too small to make this worthwhile. Recovery is possible in larger scouring plants than ours, but because of pesticides, which bond to the lanolin molecules, still needs special physical and chemical extraction.