Premier lambs wool - 3/8oz (10 grams)

Product Information

Crimp is also important. It is the natural waviness of the fibre, the elasticity. The crimp in wool makes it soft and springy to touch. It also adds bulk and traps a large volume of air between the fibres, giving it good insulation properties. In general, the more crimp there is, the smaller is the diameter of the fibre, ie the lower the micron count. Finer wool with more crimp such as merino create fabrics that drape better than coarser wool with little crimp. Merino has up to 100 crimps per inch, more than either cashmere or lambswool.

Although from a distance the finish may look good, up-close this isn’t the case as you are often left with many roller marks in the paint. Generally available in medium pile.Despite the fact you may be tempted to save a few quid and go with the cheap option, don’t! If you are looking for a good finish for your painted surfaces then in most cases you won’t get it with these sleeves. Lanolin is a wax or grease, present in all sheep's wool, but not in goat's wool. It has important natural antibacterial properties, useful for preventing body odours. Cashmere - goat The pile, or nap of a paint roller can be made of materials from 2 different sources that are either wool/natural fibres or man made fibre. As a very rough guide, generally speaking, the rougher the surface of the wall the longer the hair on the sleeve you will need.

Aside from the soft and luxurious feeling very often associated with the popular cashmere, it can be difficult for many to distinguish between the different types of wool and hair. Although there are many similarities in both the farming procedures and general properties of wool and hair, they’re usually distinguished between what animal they’re sourced from. Wool is sourced from sheep (Merino, Lincoln, Dorset etc.) whereas Hair is sourced from other animals such as goats (cashmere, mohair), alpacas (alpaca) and rabbits (angora). What is Wool? To avoid cleaning out the tray every time you use it, it can be lined with cling film which can simply be thrown away when that particular colour is finished with. Using a paint brush in this way, i.e. for detail, is called cutting in. You can find out all you need to know in our cutting in project here. Cashmere wool provides excellent insulation and can be 7-8 times warmer than merino wool, but this can lead to problems of over-heating, awkward without the presence of lanolin and its an tibacterial properties!It features a foam, natural or man made fibre sleeve that slips over a cylindrical metal frame or cage and is held in position by 2 end caps that in turn rotate around a bar fixed to a handle. The operator holds the handle, dips the sleeve in paint covering it and then enables them to roll the paint off of the sleeve on to the wall.

Synthetic fibre roller sleeves are ideal for oil based paints such as gloss painting a flush door. The tighter the nap, the smoother the finish but be prepared to throw the smoother roller sleeves away as they are a nightmare to clean. Synthetic fibre rollers are broken in to 2 categories, either knit or woven. Knit fibre rollers are generally best for flat finishes such as matt, where as woven are great for gloss water-based finishes. Although there is such as tool as a corner roller, we generally don’t tend to use them, but for completeness we are doing so.A lot of the desirable properties associated with wool and hair stem from a natural protein, called keratin, which is found in the fibers of the hair and skin of mammals. The bilateral core of keratin causes the fibers to twist and bend, giving wool its natural crimp and resilience. Another beneficial property of keratin lies in its flame-resistance, which unlike with plant fibers, makes wool and hair fibers self-extinguishable once no longer directly exposed to a flame.

With this in mind they are ideally suited for use with matt paints on flat plastered walls and ceilings and also for applying water-based gloss paints. Lambswool is wool taken from the first shearing of the sheep, usually around seven months after its first coat has come in. It has to be no longer than 50mm. It is fine and soft, and requires minimal processing. However, because lambswool can come from any breed of sheep, the micron count can vary considerably and is not usually stated. Lambswool, like all sheep's wool, contains lanolin. It is popularly used for good quality knitwear. To paint or cover a wall another essential task is to get the right amount of paint on to the roller sleeve and one of the best tools to do so is the humble roller tray.

Sizes of Paint Rollers

Angora comes from the undercoat of the Angora rabbit whose fibers are extremely fine at about 10-15 microns, which makes Angora incredibly soft and the finest of all the aforementioned. The quality of angora depends on the proportion of guard hair and undercoat making up the finished angora.