One of the most important qualities of a fleece is its degree of fineness or coarseness. A hand spinner must be able to judge this in order to select a fleece that will be suitable for the planned end use of the fiber.

Over the years, various systems have been developed in attempts to define exactly how fine or coarse a particular fleece may be and to set standards for the wool industry. Different systems developed, different terminology was used to describe the same system at different times in history, and things became a bit muddled for hand spinners as various suppliers use differing grading or count systems to describe their fleeces.

There are three count systems in use in the USA today. They are:
1. The Blood Count System also called the American Count System or simply, the Blood System.
2. The Bradford Count System also called The English System or the Spinning Count System.
3. The Micron Count System.

Let’s look at each of these grading systems individually and then see how they compare.

The Bradford Count System

The oldest of the count systems in use today is the Bradford Count System, which dates back to 19th century England. Developed in the town of Bradford, this system is based on the number of 560 yard hanks of singles yarn could be spun from one pound of combed top. Top is scoured wool that is processed by combing so that all of the fibers in the preparation lie parallel to each other. The spinning method used would be worsted and the most experienced spinners would have spun this yarn. It is possible that mechanical spinning equipment was used since it was developed about the same time as the Bradford scale was developed.

Fleece graded on the Bradford Count System is marked with a number followed by the letter s, which stands for skeins. For example, a marking of 56s would mean that 56 skeins of singles, each 560 yards could be spun worsted from one pound of that fleece if it was prepared as combed top. That is 31,360 yards of yarn. 80s would be 80 skeins, 45s would equal 45 skeins. In this system, the higher the number, the finer the fleece.

The Blood Count System

The American Blood system came into being in the early 1800’s when Spanish Merino rams were imported and crossed with coarse wool sheep. Everyone agreed that Merino was the standard for fine wool so it was decided that wool would be classified by the percentage of Merino blood in the sheep. A purebred Merino would be a full blood and would be classed as a fine wool; then the scale took the cross breeding into account, with half blood being coarser and working down from there through 3/8th blood, 1/4th blood, low 1/4th blood, common, and braid which is the coarsest grade in this system.

The Micron Count System

The latest and most accurate testing system, Micron Count measures the exact diameter of the wool. One micron is equal to 1/25400th of an inch or one millionth of a meter so special testing equipment is required. For testing, two fleece samples are taken from different parts of the fleece and sent to a lab for measuring. The results of these two tests are averaged out with the average being the Micron Count assigned to that fleece. In this system, the lower the count number, the finer the fleece.

Here’s how the different systems compare to each other:

Type of wool: Blood Count; Bradford Count; Micron Count

Fine: Fine; Finer than 80s; Under 17.70 microns
Fine: Fine; 80s; 17.7019 microns
Fine: Fine; 70s; 19.1520 microns
Fine: Fine; 64s; 20.6022 microns

Medium: ½ Blood; 62s; 22.0523 microns
Medium: ½ Blood; 60s; 23.5024 microns
Medium: 3/8th Blood; 58s; 24.9526 microns
Medium: 3/8th Blood; 56s; 26.4027 microns
Medium: 1/4th Blood; 54s; 27.8529 microns
Medium: 1/4th Blood; 50s; 29.3030 microns

Coarse: Low 1/4th Blood; 48s; 31.0032 microns
Coarse: Low 1/4th Blood; 46s; 32.7034 microns
Coarse: Common; 44s; 34.4036 microns

Very Coarse: Braid; 40s; 36.2038 microns
Very Coarse: Braid; 36s; 38.1040 microns
Very Coarse: Braid; Coarser than 36s; Over 40.20 microns