I have recently aquired a couple of Shetland fleeces . This is a new
experience for me, I've never had a Shetland fleece before. One of
them has two very distinct coats, with the longest fibers also being the
coarsest and the darkest in color. I have read passing references to
combs being used to separate the 2 coats, and I wondered if anyone could
help me with this. I'd like to get the softer uncercoat seperated from
the coarser darker stuff.
Combing is perfect for doing this!
Supposedly you need at least double row combs to separate the two coats but that doesn't match my experience. Double row combs do make it easier but it's not impossible to do with single row combs.
In brief, how you do it is lash on the locks of fleece to one comb by the butt (cut) ends. Some combs are meant to be used in hand, some can be fixed to a table so that only one comb is in hand. The tines of the combs are held at right angles to one another and the empty comb is moved through the mass of locks affixed to the other comb. Gently does it! Don't put any more pressure on the wool than you'd put on a comb being drawn through your own hair (wool isn't any stronger than human hair). Start at the tips of the wool and very gradually move back along the lock with each pass of the comb.
When most of the wool has transferred to the comb that started out empty, you can either reverse the combs or just reverse the motion of the combs so that the wool is transferred back to the original comb. It usually takes three transfers of the fleece from one comb to the other before it is completely combed out and opened up.
Then you put one comb down and gently pet the wool on the comb into a point, sort of like a goatee. Move the entire mass upwards on the tines of the comb by about an inch or so, to loosen up the wool. Take hold of the very tip of the goatee and pull it away from the comb. You will probably have to move your hands from side to side to keep drawing evenly across the entire width of the tines (unless you use mini-combs; some mini-combs are narrow enough that this is not necessary).
The first fibre to come off the comb will be the longest and if you are careful to draw evenly across the entire width of the mass of combed fleece, it will pull off from longest to shortest fibres. At some point, the fibres will be a mixture of the guard coat and undercoat, then it will be undercoat only.
There are several web sites that have pictures and even short video clips of wool combing. I can't remember where but I saw a series of pictures that showed what happened when long yellow fibres and short blue fibres (or maybe it was the other way round) were combed together and then drawn off again. Once the wool was completely combed, the mass of fiber on the combs looked green. As the comber pulled the wool off the combs, the yellow fibres came first and then the blue, so it made a strip of roving that went from yellow to blue.
M. Shirley Chong
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