Fabric and greasy wool handle, their importance to the Australian wool industry: a review

Abstract

Handle-related properties of woollen fabrics have been demonstrated to be major factors affecting consumer buying attitudes. Handle is the combination of both textural and compressional attributes. Compressional handle has demonstrated processing advantages in woven and knitted fabrics. The handle of processing lots can be manipulated using a variety of technologies but direct manipulation of textural greasy wool handle pre-processing is still crude. On-farm, there is documented evidence that including handle assessment in a selection index provides additional improvements in genetic gain. However, the assessment of greasy wool handle is based on a tactile evaluation of the wool staple by sheep and wool classers, and its application is affected by a lack of framework that instructs assessors on a standard method of assessment. Once a reliable and repeatable protocol is developed, further understanding of the effect greasy wool handle has on final garment quality will be possible.

The science behind the wool industry. The importance and value of wool production from sheep

“…Fiber diameter can influence fiber length (hauteur) and also the amount of wool waste (Romaine) during topmaking ( AWTA, 2004 ). The wool fabric wearer comfort and prickle response are directly correlated with fiber diameter ( McGregor et al, 2013 ) as well as fabric handle ( McGregor et al, 2015b ; Preston et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Research has expanded the understanding of the effects of wool crimp (fiber curvature) on processing, knitted fabric properties, and wearer comfort ( McGregor and Postle, 2009 ; McGregor et al, 2015a ). The importance and influence of wool handle have been recently reviewed by Preston et al (2016) . The challenge for producers is to produce wool acceptable to the wool value chain in a variable environment.…”

Understanding the difference in softness of Australian Soft Rolling Skin wool and conventional Merino wool

“…Crimp frequency and MFC may be the dominate factors for compression properties of wool fiber. 14,15 Fiber surface friction is also regarded as a determining factor for the softness of wool fabrics, 16,17 which is inspired by the understanding of tactile perception by touching and rubbing fabrics. The directional effect of surface friction of wool fibers determines that the against-scale friction force should represent the influence of the surface morphology on the softness of wool fibers.…”

In-situ characterization of handle characteristics of suiting woven fabrics by a simultaneous measurement method

“…In considering the comprehensive property of textiles, the handle characteristics are probably the most widely used measure to determine the end-use of clothing and fabrics by industry and consumers. 1 When clothing contacts the human body, a series of physiological perception, such as the stiffness, smoothness and tightness, will be triggered by fabrics. 2,3 Since the 1930s, when Peirce 4 first proposed to characterize fabric handle using various low-stress physical and mechanical properties of fabrics, a series of measurement instruments and methods for objectively evaluating the handle characteristics of fabrics have been reported.…”