John Lever
Moderator
m444uk said:I wear merino t-shirts jogging because of it's excellent wicking properties and the fact it doesn't get clammy with sweat. But, is it hard enough wearing to make a durable jacket ? Merino wool is soft with thin fibre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merino
It would take a lifetime to experiment with this lot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sheep_breeds
but would other traditional upland breeds be better ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Mountain_sheep
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_B ... 28sheep%29
A good proportion of the surviving originals must be made from Scottish Blackface sheep.
I asked Gary Eastman about a group order for some merino irvin's.
This is his reply -
Dear John,
No I'm afraid not. Changing skin types would require an immense amount of of R & D, and in any case we have already been down the Merino route years ago - lovely wool, very very weak skin - this is natural characteristic of Merino and is why it is only really used for yarn. If they want jackets that fall apart then Merino is the way to go
Best regards,
Gary
I have a 20 year old RMNZ B-3 made from merino ss, it's still going strong and looks amazing.