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Type A: Characterized by long ringlets of silky curls with high luster. Guard hair, while present, is
generally fine and difficult to see. Cool handle. Very similar to kid mohair in look and feel. This fiber is
supposed to have very little separation and thus not need to be dehaired. If dehairing is neccasary, a flick
carder would be my tool of choice.
Type C: Fine downy undercoat. Matte finish. Very warm and extremely light. Type C fibre that tests under
19 microns is cashmere and can be sold as such. Guard hairs are large and coarse and very necessary
for this type! Without them the fibre would felt right on the animal. Handle is warm. Type C fiber should be
combed or plucked as shearing leaves you with a much more labor-intensive amount of dehairing.
Type B: A wonderful luxurious fibre with characteristics of both A and C. Often called "Blend", I must admit
this is my favorite type. Rather then having a mix of A fibers and C fibers (as I originally thought) , each
hair has the characteristics of both types with crimpy fiber near the base of the lock and shiny curly fiber
near the tip. These actually can be different colors on the same hair as well. B type fibre can range from
nearly C (BC) to nearly A (AB) and everything in between. With selective breeding, each generation could
have less and less guard hair until dehairing the fibre becomes unnecessary. Since this has a longer
staple then C, it is easier for hand-spinners to work with. BC's have warm lofty fibre that spins up light and
airy and with very little shine. AB's are silky and lots of luster but less downy fibre. B's fall right in between
the two with a even blend of both fiber characteristics. The fibre spins up with a muted shine, silky but with
lots of loft which makes it extra soft. Fulling the yarn of any of the B types will bring out a pretty halo.
Plucking or combing is my method of choice for B's and BC's, and then I run the fiber once through my mini
combs to extract remaining "junk" and draw sliver for spinning. For AB's, I use a flick carder, although I
don't use it in the obvious manner-write to me if you are interested in my quick dehairing technique. I'm
working on a series of pictures to demonstrate this very effective technique which strips out guardhair while
leaving the fiber untouched.
Babies cannot be typed right away: smooth coated babies can end up being AB's just as easily as they
could be C's. The same applies to babies with curly guardhair. My smoothest coated baby last year ended
up with nearly a A type fiber.
Once the fibre coat start coming in, the baby coat starts to shed out. The amount of guardhair that is left
depends on the goat.