Best Rabbits For Wool? : Wool Rabbits and Fibre Arts

I have been looking into wool/fiber rabbits for quite some time and was wondering which type of Angora was the best for felting/sheep like wool. Maybe a cross? Like a Frech/English Angora cross? Maybe even Jersey Woolies? I don't know just wondering.

Angora as a rule does not felt extremely well. Under high heat and a lot of agitation you can get it to felt, but it takes about 6x longer than the average wool. I have seen some silk and angora felt articles that are beautiful, but those that have worked with said it wasnt their favorite project.
I do believe that english angora was the preference, because of the softer texture and less guard hair.

SixGun wrote:Angora as a rule does not felt extremely well. Under high heat and a lot of agitation you can get it to felt, but it takes about 6x longer than the average wool. I have seen some silk and angora felt articles that are beautiful, but those that have worked with said it wasnt their favorite project.
I do believe that english angora was the preference, because of the softer texture and less guard hair.

Thanks for the info. Would Jersey Woolies be good?

Jersey Woolies don't produce a lot of wool, and what they do produce is coarse in texture and heavy in guard hair so probably not ideal for felting.

SableSteel wrote:Jersey Woolies don't produce a lot of wool, and what they do produce is coarse in texture and heavy in guard hair so probably not ideal for felting.

Then what would work? If not Angoras or Jerseys then what else is there? Sorry to be a bother.

WWRabbitry wrote:

SableSteel wrote:Jersey Woolies don't produce a lot of wool, and what they do produce is coarse in texture and heavy in guard hair so probably not ideal for felting.

Then what would work? If not Angoras or Jerseys then what else is there? Sorry to be a bother.

If you want to produce any significant amount of wool, angoras are pretty much your only option imo (the people that I have seen use, for example, jersey wooly wool already had the jersey woolies for show or pet, not keeping them just for wool production). For felting, probably english angora would be your best bet as far as I know.

I had adopted a jersey woolie as a prelude to my first english angora (I had to drive nearly 2 hrs to get my first angora as they're exceptionally rare in my area). The angora put whatever little floofs I got off the jersey to shame, but I wouldn't change the order of how things happened. I had mostly new zealand whites and standard rex before the woolie and it honestly prepared me for the sort of grooming that was expected without spending the cost of a real angora and having to do the sort of hunting needed just to find one. Basically, it was like getting a puppy to prepare yourself for the responsibility of having a baby. Both are hard work, but one is a heck of a lot more work and expense just to acquire, let alone raise. The angora was a landslide winner for wool in the end. The woolie wool could be spun somewhat, but it was so much shorter and lower in both quality and quantity that I wound up rehoming him in the end (I also found the jersey liked to spray urine way more than the angora so yeck)

EDIT: Also, sorry I missed this!

WWRabbitry wrote:Then what would work? If not Angoras or Jerseys then what else is there? Sorry to be a bother.

Sheep's Wool would typically be used for both kinds of felting. You could buy some and blend it with angora to make felting easier. I'm told alpaca fleece works too, but it is harder to find and typically more expensive than sheep's wool. It also depends if you're wet felting or needle felting. I'm told wet felting can be done with angora alone, but definitely not needle felting as it's too slippery. You might have to play with various blends for whatever you've got planned.

You could buy a bit of the different types of angora wool and test them out for suitability before getting the whole bunny perhaps? Folks on Etsy sell ounces of bunny fluff and they will tell you the breed of angora.

We have English angoras and it seems to be a somewhat 'feltable' fiber.

I've gotten some 'angora' New Zealands from some meat breeders who ended up with fuzzy bunnies. They did nothing but felt since they didn't seem to have the guard hair, just the undercoat and they would mat up almost immediately after they were groomed. Apparently, angoras had been bred into the NZ lines to create better pelts. The long wool of an angora requires a double recessive to get it so the long wool wouldn't show up on a first generation cross. I'm thinking it may take more than one gene for the long wool since the woolly NZs never seemed to have a true angora coat. They did have longer hair and it did mat, though.