felt

1. 1. A fabric of matted, compressed animal fibers, such as wool or fur, sometimes mixed with vegetable or synthetic fibers.
   2. A material resembling this fabric.
2. Something made of this fabric.

Made of, relating to, or resembling felt.

1. To make into felt.
2. To cover with felt.
3. To press or mat (something) together.

To become like felt; mat together.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

Past tense and past participle of feel.

Background

Most fabrics are woven, meaning they are constructed on a loom and have interlocking warp (the thread or fiber that is strung lengthwise on the loom) and weft (the thread that cuts across the warp fiber and interlocks with it) fibers that create a flat piece of fabric. Felt is a dense, non-woven fabric and without any warp or weft. Instead, felted fabric is made from matted and compressed fibers or fur with no apparent system of threads. Felt is produced as these fibers and/or fur are pressed together using heat, moisture, and pressure. Felt is generally composed of wool that is mixed with a synthetic in order to create sturdy, resilient felt for craft or industrial use. However, some felt is made wholly from synthetic fibers.

Felt may vary in width, length, color, or thickness depending on its intended application. This matted material is particularly useful for padding and lining as it is dense and can be very thick. Furthermore, since the fabric is not woven the edges may be cut without fear of threads becoming loose and the fiber unraveling. Felted fibers generally take dye well and craft felt is available in a multitude of colors while industrial-grade felt is generally left in its natural state. In fact, felt is used in a wide variety of applications both within the residential and industrial contexts. Felt is used in air fresheners, children's bulletin boards, craft kits, holiday costumes and decorations, stamp pads, within appliances, gaskets, as a clothing stiffener or liner, and it can be used as a cushion, to provide pads for polishing apparatus, or as a sealant in industrial machinery.

History

Felt may be the oldest fabric known to man, and there are many references to felt in ancient writings. Since felt is not woven and does not require a loom for its production, ancient man made it rather easily. Some of the earliest felt remains were found in the frozen tombs of nomadic horsemen in the Siberian Tlai mountains and date to around 700 B.C. These tribes made clothing, saddles, and tents from felt because it was strong and resistant to wet and snowy weather. Legend has it that during the Middle Ages St. Clement, who was to become the fourth bishop of Rome, was a wandering monk who happened upon the process of making felt by accident. It is said he stuffed his sandals with tow (short flax or linen fibers) in order to make them more comfortable. St. Clement discovered that the combination of moisture from perspiration and ground dampness coupled with pressure from his feet matted these tow fibers together and produced a cloth. After becoming bishop he set up groups of workers to develop felting operations. St. Clement became the patron saint for hatmakers, who extensively utilize felt to this day.

Today, hats are associated with felt, but it is generally presumed that all felt is made of wool. Originally, early hat-making felt was produced using animal fur (generally beaver fur). The fur was matted with other fibers—including wool—using heat, pressure, and moisture. The finest hats were of beaver, and men's fine hats were often referred to as beavers. Beaver felt hats were made in the late Middle Ages and were much coveted. However, by the end of the fourteenth century many hatmakers produced them in the Low Countries thus driving down the price.

The North American continent was home to many of the beaver skins used in European hatmakers' creations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. North American Indians' second-hand skins, replete with perspiration, felted most successfully and were in extraordinary demand for hatmaking in both the New and Old Worlds. The beaver hat was surpassed in popularity in the second half of the nineteenth century by the black silk hat, sometimes finished to resemble beaver and referred to as beaver-finished silk.

The steps included in making felt have changed little over time. Felted fabric is produced using heat, moisture, and pressure to mat and interlock the fibers. In the Middle Ages the hatmaker separated the fur from the hide by hand and applied pressure and warm water to the fabric to shrink it manually. While machinery is used today to accomplish many of these tasks, the processing requirements remain unchanged. One exception is that until the late nineteenth century mercury was used in the processing of felt for hatmaking. Mercury was discovered to have debilitating effects on the hatter causing a type of poisoning that led to tremors, hallucinations, and other psychotic symptoms. The term mad hatter is associated with the hatmaker because of the psychosis that stemmed from the mercury poisoning. Hats of wool felt remain quite popular and are primarily worn in the winter months.

The use of felt has enlarged over the past century. Crafts enthusiasts use it for all types of projects. Many teachers find it to be an easy fabric for children to handle because once it is cut the edges do not unravel as do woven fabrics. Industrial applications for felt have burgeoned, and felt is found in cars as well as production machinery.

Raw Materials

Felt is produced from wool, which grips and mats easily, and a synthetic fiber that gives the felt some resilience and longevity. Typical fiber combinations for felt include wool and polyester or wool and nylon. Synthetics cannot be turned into felt by themselves but can be felted if they combine with wool.

Other raw materials used in the production of wool include steam, utilized during the stage in which the material is reduced in width and length and made thicker. Also, a weak sulfuric acid mixture is used in the thickening process. Soda ash (sodium chloride) is utilized to neutralize the sulfuric acid.

The Manufacturing
Process

1. Since some felts use more than one type of fiber, the fibers must be mixed and blended together before any processing begins. To do this, the raw fibers are put into an opener with a big cylinder studded with steel nails that combine the fibers into a mass.
2. Next, these blended fibers must be carded. Carding machines are huge cylinders that mat the fibers into a web. Hopper-feeders allow a specific weight of fiber to pass into the cylinder in order to create a standardized web. The fibers in the web are pulled by the wires, or carded, so that they are parallel to one another.
3. Generally, at least two carding machines are used in the manufacturing process, each refining the web as it creates a new one. A transporter moves one web from the first carding machine to a second. The web is then fed into the second machine. This second carder generates a new web that is thicker and fully carded.
4. At the end of the second carding, a comb removes the carded web from the machine and rolls it up. There are two ways to remove the web from the machine: a cross-lapper may be used in which the web is perpendicularly rolled up, or across the direction of the fibers; or a vlamir may be utilized, in which the web is rolled parallel to the direction of the fibers.
5. Next, several different webs are combined to create one thick web. Four rolls of web are rolled up but are layered so that their fibers alternate in direction based on the way the webs were rolled, either cross-lapped or rolled using a vlamir. These four rolls are considered a standard single roll, sometimes referred to as a batt. This batt is considered a standard roll of material. Batts are layered in order to create different thicknesses of felt.
6. The batts of felted material must be hardened or matted together in order to create thick, densely-felted material. The first step in this process is subjecting the batts to heat and moisture. In order to do so, the batts are passed through a steam table.
7. Now, the separate batts must be matted together and shrunk in length and width in order to create a dense felt. These batts must be subjected to heat, moisture, and pressure in order to be matted densely. First, the wetted batts are fed into a plate-hardener that shrinks the width of the fabric. The plate-hardener consists of a large, square flat bed with a large plate that drops down over the batts of wet, hot batts, exerting pressure on the material and compressing it. At the same time, the plate-hardener oscillates from edge to edge, further matting the fiber to a specific width.
8. Next, the batts are fed into a fuller or fulling machine, which shrinks the length to a specific measurement. As it shrinks, the felt becomes more dense. The batts are fed through a set of upper and lower steel rollers that are covered with hard rubber or plastic and are molded with treads much like a car tire, enabling them to move across the batts. The felt is continuously wetted with a hot water and sulfuric-acid solution. The upper rollers remain stationary as the lower rollers are moved upwards to put pressure on the fabric and push it against the upper rollers. All of the rollers, both upper and lower, move together forward and backward. The pressure, the acid, the hot water, and the movement causes the batts to shrink in length, making the felt even more dense. For example, a single piece of felt that is 38 yd (34.7 m) long may come out of the fuller at only 30 yd (27.4 m) in length.
9. The wet felt has sulfuric acid residue and must be neutralized. To do so, the felt is run through neutralizing tanks filled with a soda ash and warm water solution. This process is carefully timed so that specific yard lengths and widths are in for an exact amount of time.
10. The neutralized felt is then run through a refulling machine in which heavy rollers run over the surface of the fabric one last time to smooth out any irregularities.
11. If felts are to be dyed, the wet pieces are taken to a dye vat. Some industrial grades are not dyed but go directly to drying.
12. Some companies simply roll up the wet felt and send it to a centrifugal dryer that spins out the water. Others have huge dryers in which the felt is pinned in place on a dryer bed. Felt can also be open-air dried by either being hung or stretched out on a floor in a drying room.
13. Once dry, some companies press or iron the felt to ensure consistent thickness. Some manufacturers use this ironing to make dense felts even more dense as ironing can shrink it slightly.
14. The finishing step includes placing the felt on a gaging table in which the edges of the felt are neatly trimmed. The piece is now ready for packing, labeling, and shipping.

Quality Control

Quality control begins with the arrival of the materials. Materials are checked for quality and weight. Some companies purchase wool that has been scoured and baled; the purity of the bales is examined upon entry. Other important quality control checks include continuous monitoring of the carded webs, since the web sizes are important first steps in producing the desired length and width of the felt. Once the batts are shrunk in width and length, the company checks the weight, density, width, length, and evenness of the batts. When production is complete, visual checks may reveal that the surface of a batt is slightly uneven and additional pressing may occur to even out the surface. The acid baths are also very carefully monitored. The amount of time the fabric is in the acid bath is precisely calculated by weight and length of yard good, lest the piece is ruined. Finally, the company producing industrial felt has to check its goods against a governmental standard for the product. The government has determined that 16 lb (7.3 kg) density felt must be 1 in (2.5 cm) thick, 36 in (91.4 cm) wide, 36 in (91.4 cm) long, and weigh 16 lb (7.3 kg). If the felt weighs less than this, the fabric is not dense enough and does not meet government expectations for that grade of felt.

Byproducts/Waste

There is some waste generated in felt production. When the edges are trimmed, small pieces are cut off. These small pieces are often impregnated with oil and grease from the machinery and are unusable for other purposes. These materials are then sent to a landfill.

The Future

Due to its extreme versatility, the demand for felt is consistent. It is used in military applications for helmets, boots, small ammunitions, and rockets. The civilian uses of felt are too numerous to count. A unique use has been found for the excess white felt ground that is relatively clean and clear of oil and grease. It is ground up, colored, and put into an aerosol can. It is then sold as a spray to cover bald spots and has been somewhat successful in recent years.

Where to Learn More

Books

Gioello, Debbie Ann. Profiling Fabrics. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1981.

McDowell, Colin. Hats: Status, Style and Glamour. New York: Rizzoli, 1993.

Other

Design Arcade Web Page. November 2001. <http://www.designarcade.com/history/historyfelt.htm>.

Interview with Dick Pursell. Director of Sales, U. S. Felt. Sanford, ME. August 2001.

Sutherland Felt Company. Manufacturing of Wool Felts Wet Process. Troy, MI.

[Article by: Nancy EV Bryk]

An unwoven fabric, composed of fibers which are matted together, usually with the aid of moisture and heat, by rolling or by pressure; usually manufactured from cellulose fibers from wood, paper, or rags, or from asbestos or glass fibers.

Woollen fabric used as lining for harness.

For other uses, see Felt (disambiguation).

A selection of 4 different felt cloths.

Kazakh felt yurt

Felt is a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers. While some types of felt are very soft, some are tough enough to form construction materials. Felt can be of any color, and made into any shape or size.

Felt is the oldest form of fabric known to humankind. It predates weaving and knitting, although there is archaeological evidence from the British Museum that the first known thread was made by winding vegetable fibers on the thigh. In Turkey, the remains of felt have been found dating back at least to 6,500 BC. Highly sophisticated felted artifacts were found preserved in permafrost in a tomb in Siberia and dated to 600 AD.

Many cultures have legends as to the origins of feltmaking. Sumerian legend claims that the secret of feltmaking was discovered by Urnamman of Lagash. The story of Saint Clement and Saint Christopher relates that while fleeing from persecution, the men packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters. At the end of their journey, the movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks.

Feltmaking is still practiced by nomadic peoples in Central Asia, where rugs, tents and clothing are regularly made. Some of these are traditional items, such as the classic yurt, while others are designed for the tourist market, such as decorated slippers. In the Western world, felt is widely used as a medium for expression in textile art as well as design, where it has significance as an ecological textile.

Contents 1 Construction 2 Uses 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Construction

Felt is made by a process called wet felting, where the natural wool fiber is stimulated by friction and lubricated by moisture (usually soapy water), and the fibers move at a 90 degree angle towards the friction source^{[clarification needed]} and then away again, in effect making little "tacking" stitches. Only 5% of the fibers are active at any one moment, but the process is continual, and so different 'sets' of fibers become activated and then deactivated in the continual process.

This "wet" process utilizes the inherent nature of wool and other animal hairs, because the hairs have scales on them which are directional. The hairs also have kinks in them, and this combination of scales (like the structure of a pine cone) is what reacts to the stimulation of friction and causes the phenomenon of felting. It tends to work well with woolen fibers as their scales, when aggravated, bond together to form a cloth.

Felting is done by a chemical process in industry. It is also done with special felting needles, which grab individual fibers and drag them against their neighbors, thereby binding them. Felting may also be done in a domestic washing machine on a hot cycle.

From the mid-17th to the mid-20th centuries, a process called "carroting" was used in the manufacture of good quality felt for making men's hats. Beaver, rabbit or hare skins were treated with a dilute solution of the mercury compound mercuric nitrate. The skins were dried in an oven when the thin fur at the sides went orange - carrot color. Pelts were stretched over a bar in a cutting machine and the skin sliced off in thin shreds, the fleece coming away entirely. The fur was blown onto a cone-shaped colander, treated with hot water to consolidate it, the cone peeled off and passed through wet rollers to cause the fur to felt. These 'hoods' were then dyed and blocked to make hats. This toxic solution and the vapors it produced resulted in widespread cases of mercury poisoning among hatters. The United States Public Health Service banned the use of mercury in the felt industry in December 1941.

Knitted woolen garments which shrink in a hot machine wash can be said to have felted, but have actually been "fulled". Felting differs from fulling in the sense that fulling is done to fabric whereas felting is done to fibers that are not in fabric form. Modern fulling is an example of how the fibers bond together when combined with the movement of the washing machine, the heat of the water, and the addition of soap.

Cheaper felt is usually artificial. Artificial felt, if made using the wet method, has a minimum of 30% of wool fibers combined with other artificial fibers. This is the minimum required to hold a fabric together with the fibers alone. It would be difficult to achieve a stable fabric by hand at this ratio. All other wholly artificial felts are actually needle-felts.

Loden is a type of felt originally worn in the Alpine regions, which has recently gained worldwide acceptance as a textile for fine and durable clothing.

An alternative way of creating felt is to have a steam roller go over the unwoven fabrics in a shallow pool of water with the cloths rotating as the steam roller goes over it. This method is widely used in small towns in India where mass manufacturing of clothing is done.

Uses

Felt is used everywhere from the automotive industry, to children's story telling, to musical instruments all the way to house building. It is often used as a damper. In the automotive industry, for example, it damps the vibrations between interior panels and also stops dirt entering into some ball/cup joints. A felt-covered board can be used in storytelling to small children. Small felt animals, people or other objects will adhere to a felt board, and in the process of telling the story, the storyteller also acts it out on the board with the animals or people. Puppets can also be made with felt. While a woven (not felted) fabric is less expensive and more commonly used, felt is used on professional or tournament billiards table to cover the slate surface. German artist Josef Beuys used felt in a number of works. In the early part of the 20th century, felt hats like fedoras, trilbies and homburgs were worn by many men in the western world.

Many musical instruments use felt. On drum cymbal stands it protects the cymbal from cracking and ensures a clean sound. It is used to wrap bass drum and timpani mallets. Piano hammers are made of wool felt around a wooden core. The density and springiness of the felt is a major part of what creates a piano's tone. As the felt becomes grooved and "packed" with use and age, the tone suffers. Felt is placed under the piano keys on accordions to control touch and key noise: it is also used on the pallets to silence notes not sounded by preventing air flow. Though the ukulele is most commonly plucked, the pick, or plectrum, is made of felt.

Needle felting is a popular fiber arts craft conducted without the use of water. Special barbed felting needles that are used in industrial felting machines are used by the artist as a sculpting tool. Using a single needle or a small group of needles (2-5) in a hand held tool, these needles are used to sculpt the wool fiber. The barbs catch the scales on the fiber and push them through the layers of wool tangling them and binding them together much like the wet felting process. Fine details can be achieved using this technique and it is popular for 3D felted work.

See also

• Fuzzy felt
• Roofing felt
• Valenki
• Nuno felting

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media  related to (category): Felt

• Pressed Wool Felt- How felt is Made, History, Different types of Felt
• International Feltmakers Association
• Kyrgyz Thick Felt
• Felting news - Felting news and reviews

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - filt
v. tr. - filte, tilvirke filt af, dække med filt
v. intr. - filte sig
adj. - filt-

idioms:

• felt tip    filtpen

Nederlands (Dutch)
vilt, soort bouwmateriaal, iets van vilt (m.n. hoed), vilten, vervilten, van vilt maken/met vilt bedekken, laten plakken/ samendrukken

Français (French)
n. - feutre, feutrine
v. tr. - (Tex) se feutrer, (Constr) couvrir de
v. intr. - se feutrer
adj. - en feutre, en feutrine

idioms:

• felt tip    (crayon) feutre

Deutsch (German)
n. - Filz, Isoliermaterial
adj. - Filz-
v. - Filz herstellen, verfilzen

idioms:

• felt tip    Filzstift

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πίλημα, κετσές, τσόχα
adj. - αισθητός

idioms:

• felt tip    μύτη μαρκαδόρου

Italiano (Italian)
feltro, di feltro

idioms:

• felt tip    pennarello

Português (Portuguese)
n. - feltro (m)
adj. - feltrado

idioms:

• felt tip    ponta (de caneta) com feltro (em vez do bico)

Русский (Russian)
войлок, фетр

idioms:

• felt tip    фломастер

Español (Spanish)
n. - fieltro
v. tr. - enfieltrar, enredar, apelmasar
v. intr. - apelmasarse, enredarse
adj. - de fieltro

idioms:

• felt tip    lápiz de fieltro, rotulador, marcador

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - filt (tyg), filthatt
adj. - filt-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
毛毯, 毡, 毯制的, 制毡, 使粘结, 粘结

idioms:

• felt tip    毡尖笔

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 毛毯, 氈
adj. - 毯製的
v. tr. - 製氈, 使粘結
v. intr. - 粘結

idioms:

• felt tip    氈尖筆

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 펠트(천)
v. tr. - ~을 펠트로 하다, ~을 펠트로 덮다
v. intr. - 펠트가 되다, 펠트처럼 엉크러지다
adj. - 절실히 느껴지는

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 思う, 感じる
n. - フェルト
adj. - フェルト製の

idioms:

• felt tip    フェルトペン

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) لباد (صفه) مصنوع من اللباد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮לבד‬
adj. - ‮עשוי לבד, של לבד‬
v. tr. - ‮עשה ללבד, כיסה בלבד‬
v. intr. - ‮נעשה ללבד‬

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