What is wool felt?
Considered the oldest textile produced by mankind, wool felt is a non-woven fabric which becomes possible due to the microscopic scales and crimps found on sheep’s and other mammals hair such as camels, rabbits, llamas and some goats.
Apparently the first pieces of wool felt were created by Asian nomadic tribes. These people used to place sheep’s wool in between their feet and their footwear to protect themselves from the cold of winter. During long walks, the fibers were exposed to heat, moisture and friction generated by the action of walking. As a result the scales of the fibers interlocked with each other and became a piece of felt.
Wool fiber has numerous and extraordinary natural properties besides felting. It’s an excellent thermal insulator. It retains and releases humidity depending on the environment conditions to which it is exposed. It is self-extinguishing and flame retardant by nature. Provides high rates of liquid absorption and retention. It has excellent acoustic properties. It can be extremely abrasive or delicately soft. It is natural, sustainable, renewable and biodegradable.
Throughout history wool felt has evolved and adapted to technological changes and has managed to survive as one of the most versatile textiles with countless applications in all sorts of industries.
Process
Our process begins with the appropriate selection of fibers which are delicately blended and carded to draw a very light wool web. This web is accumulated in certain number of layers which make a heavier batt.
The rolled batts continue into the felting process in which certain controlled conditions of heat, moisture and friction are applied in order to get the fibers to interlock forming a nonwoven fabric called felt. The number of batts depends on the desired weight and thickness of the product to be manufactured.
Afterwards the basic felted material goes into the fulling process where it is exposed to a much aggressive and intense agitation and to higher pressure, stronger heat and heavy moisture conditions. This process forces the fibers to further interlock getting them closer together, thus, increasing the density of the material. Felt can be fulled for a few minutes or several hours depending on the target density that needs to be achieved.
Once the desired density is reached, the felt goes through a drying process and then it’s pressed down to thickness. It finally goes through quality controls with which we make sure the material meets specifications as per required standard.
