If you are considering selling wool or fibre, we do sometimes buy high-quality fibre from rare and specialist breeds for a range of products. It could be used in a pure form or blended to make products for our sister company, Blacker Yarns.
We are particularly interested in rare, fine and coloured fibre. Request samples should be sent to us for assessment and we will then review and discuss prices with you, with no commitment on either side. All fleece we agree to take is sorted and graded and the value per kilogram calculated on the net amount accepted. We also pay inward carriage for purchased fleece, where necessary.
Some of the specialist yarns we produce have been so successful that there is now a shortage of fleece from certain sheep breeds such as pedigree Shetland, Teeswater, Wensleydale, and fine and medium lustre longwool breeds, and Blue-faced Leicester.
If you sell to us, please note that we pay only for what we keep, not what we reject, as we have to dispose of it, which has a cost associated with it. Once the samples have been approved we can arrange for the sacks of fleece to be collected, and as an incentive we pay incoming carriage. You can also deliver it to the mill, if you prefer and usually you can get a better price by doing this. As your fleeces will normally be shorn and sent to us during the summer and autumn, which are our busiest times for spinning, we cannot always sort and grade the fibre quickly and a report on the results and payment may take between six and twelve months.
Generally we pay a premium for quality and rarity, and we can only buy fibre that has been totally free of pesticides for at least four months before shearing.
Some sheep breeds do not produce wool of sufficiently high quality to be used by Blacker Yarns, but we are keen to develop more opportunities for coarser fibres and are happy to discuss ideas.
Take a look at our file on Sheep shearing and maintaining the quality of fleece to see if your fleece is suitable for selling. Most of the British clip is by law purchased by British Wool (link is external), but the relatively small quantities we buy are of little interest to them and many breeds that we are interest in are covered by exemptions due to rarity. For those who deal with the Wool Board, but also want to sell to us, a letter has been agreed with them that covers the legal aspects.