Cashmere wool | history, description, applications

Cashmere wool

Cashmere wool is a fiber derived from Cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goats. It has been used in the manufacture of yarn, textiles, and clothing for hundreds of years. Both soft undercoats and guard hair can be used such as soft hair is reserved for textiles, while thick guard hair is used for brushing and other non-garment purposes.

Cashmere wool fiber is used for garments and other textile materials are obtained from the neck region of Cashmere. The Cashmere goat forms a double fleece called guard hair, consisting of a straight, mixed with a fine, soft undercoat or Underdown hair, and a much thicker outer layer of hair. For fine Underdown sales and further processing, it must be de-haired. This de-hairing is a mechanical process that separates coarse hair from fine hair. After de-hairing, the resulting cashmere is ready to be dyed and transformed into textile yarn, cloth, and garment.

Pure cashmere can be dyed and spun with yarn and knitted into jumpers/sweaters, hats, gloves, socks, and other garments, or woven into fabrics then cut and combined into garments like outer coats, jackets, trousers, pajamas, scarves, blankets, and other items. Clothing and apparel manufacturers in Scotland, Italy, and Japan have long been known as market leaders. Cashmere wool can be blended with other fibers to reduce the cost of clothing, or to give elasticity or luster to silk from their properties.

Cashmere wool history

Cashmere wool has been created in Mongolia, Nepal, and Kashmir for thousands of years. The fiber is also known as pashm or pashmina for use in handmade shawls of Kashmir. Commercial trade in raw cashmere between Asia and Europe began with Valerie Adreset SA, Louviers, France, claiming to be the first European company to spin cashmere commercially. The down was imported from Tibet through Kazan, the capital of the Russian province of Volga, and was used in France to make imitation shawls. The imported cashmere was spread in a large sieve and beaten with sticks to open the fiber and clean the dirt. After opening, the cashmere was washed and the children removed their thick hair. The down was then carded and combed using the same method used for bad spinning. Shawls were introduced in Western Europe when General Napoleon Bonaparte sent one of his expeditions from Ottoman Egypt to Paris. The arrival of the shawl was reported to have created an immediate sensation and the product was planned to start production in France. By the 1830s, cashmere shawl weaving with French-produced yarn had become an important Scottish industry. Henry Holdsworth and his sons began making yarn in 1832 and received the prize in 1833. Dawson International claims to have invented the first commercial dehairing machine in 1890 and has been buying cashmere from China since 1906 but was limited to buying fiber from Beijing and Tianjin until 1978. Trade was liberalized in 1978 and Dawson International began buying cashmere from many provinces.

Fiber description

Cashmere goats have a protective outer covering of 4 to 20 cm thick fiber in length. The downy undercoat is made up of fine, soft fibers commonly called cashmere that is 2.5 to 9 cm long. Most of these down fibers are plucked or combed by hand during the melting season. Iranian cashmere is obtained by shearing. The annual yield per animal ranges from a few grams to about 0.5 kilograms. A sweater requires 4 to 6 goat fleece. Some fibers are called tanned cashmere which is taken from the skin of slaughtered animals.

Fiber processing

Fleece is cleaned to remove impurities such as grease and vegetable matter. Thick hairs are removed by various mechanical dehiring processes that are often kept secret by their developers. Processing reduces the final yield by about 50 percent. The amount of rest of thick hair greatly influences the price, with fiber leading to the highest price with the lowest hair content. High-quality cashmere-coated fabrics usually contain less than 5 percent of thick hair; Fine quality sweaters contain less than 1 percent. The outer layers of fine fibers or the fibers that make up the epidermis are less distinct than fur, although more pronounced than mohair; the cortical layer is straightened and contains a variety of pigments that make up the fiber color and have no distinct medulla. The diameter of the fibers is finer than the best wool.

Cashmere wool qualities

The fabric made of cashmere is warm and comfortable for the wearer and has excellent dropping qualities and soft texture. Fiber, which absorbs and retains moisture much like wool, is slightly weaker than fine wool and significantly weaker than mohair. It is highly susceptible to damage by strong alkalis and high temperatures. Darker fibers are bleached to get a lighter shade, although the process can reduce strength and softness. Wearing cashmere clothes subject to abrasion such as pilling, or assembling surface fibers, is a problem with knitwear.

Cashmere wool applications

i. Cashmere is mainly used for fine coats, dresses, and suits, and high-quality knitwear and hosiery.

ii. It is sometimes mixed with other fibers.

iii. Tough, thick hair separated from the bottom is used locally for grain bags, ropes, blankets, and tent curtains.