Standard Allowance
Moisture calculations in commercial wool trading rely on a standardized percentage representing accepted water weight relative to oven-dry fiber weight. Standard combed wool regain establishes the legal dry-weight baseline used to convert raw invoice mass into billable mass. International wool textile organization rules fix this figure at eighteen point two five percent for dry combed tops and nineteen percent for oil combed tops.
Beyond this limit, buyers reject invoice weights that account for excess water content.
Mass Settlement
Invoices for bulk top shipments adjust total billing weight based on oven-drying samples from sealed bales. When laboratory testing shows actual moisture content falling below the agreed benchmark, combed wool regain provides the multiplier to increase the corrected commercial weight paid to the topmaker. Higher observed moisture reverses this calculation, deducting weight from the final bill to prevent buyers from paying fiber prices for unevaporated water.
Moisture Correction
Testing involves heating core samples to constant weight at one hundred five degrees Celsius to isolate clean dry wool content. Calculating combed wool regain requires dividing the total mass loss by the dry sample weight, expressing water content as a percentage of pure keratin mass. Residual oils and grease are extracted separately prior to dry mass determination so that processing lubricants do not skew the water measurement.
Commercial Impact
Discrepancies between certified mill regain and arrival moisture levels alter transaction margins across high-volume spinning contracts.
