Raw Cashmere Classing and Guard Hair Percentage Estimation
Raw cashmere value hinges on clean down yield and optical verification of residual coarse hair content below zero point five percent by mass.
Clipped Cashmere
Fibre Origin
Caprine fleece removed mechanically from down-producing goats contains raw fine undercoat alongside blunt-cut, coarse guard hairs. In raw material trading, clipped cashmere is produced when herders shear fleeces using mechanical clippers or hand shears during spring fleece collection. The shearing process severs outer coarse fibers and inner soft clusters simultaneously, producing fleece bundles with square cut ends across every fiber diameter class.
Shearing speeds up harvesting across extensive pastoral herds. Industrial buyers view raw sheared fleeces with scrutiny because guard hair fragments complicate downstream mechanical sorting.
Separation Efficiency
Mechanical dehairing equipment processes sheared fiber by passing uncleaned fleece over carding cylinders and centrifugal rollers to blow dense guard fibers away from lightweight down. With clipped cashmere, the squared cut ends of coarse guard hair fragments share physical dimensions and aerodynamic resistance with coarse down filaments, reducing separation selectivity during mechanical beating cycles. Carding wires suffer accelerated wear from repeated contact with rigid hair fragments that resist pneumatic deflection.
Multiple cleaning passes extract the stubborn outer hairs at the expense of tearing delicate down fibers into short remnants. These successive cycles reduce spinning yields while increasing factory nep formation. Higher processing passes lower clean yield and generate unrecoverable fiber dust.
Yarn Tenacity
Fiber staple length distribution governs draft control and packing density across spinning frames. Clipped cashmere contains shorter mean fiber lengths than combed stock because cutting shears sever fibers at arbitrary points along their growth axis, generating fragmented staples that slip prematurely during spinning operations. The presence of residual stiff cut hair reduces yarn cohesion and produces frequent yarn breaks under tension during winding and knitting.
Coarse cut fiber tips escape the twist structure to prick human nerve endings, generating a scratchy tactile sensation that ruins next-to-skin fabric appeal.
Valuation Adjustment
Settlement terms for raw fiber purchases penalize sheared material through deductions tied to clean down yield and residual outer hair content. Testing laboratories determine true down content by manual separation or automated projection microscopy, establishing whether coarse hair fractions stay below standard contract limits of less than one percent. Lots failing coarse hair criteria face heavy discounts or outright rejection by top-tier worsted mills.
Clipped cashmere trade prices settle at a substantial discount compared to combed lots to account for processing losses and compromised yarn strength.