Combing

After wool is scoured, it can be combed.

It's a little bit crazy for us to be combing our own fiber, but we've been running down crazy-road for a while, and custom-combing can eliminate a couple of things that have been bothering me. It's not at all clear it will be worth the trouble, but we are going to find out!

After wool is scoured, it is sometimes combed. Whether the clean fiber is combed depends upon a few things ... basically, it depends the ultimate product intended.

Combing will remove tangles (neps), short fibers and almost all the vegetable matter not removed by scouring.

We have always used combed warp, but we have never used combed weft. As we tiptoe into Batch 9, we are testing combed weft. A lot more info on this to come!

Before continuing with this topic, I need to organize my thoughts some more, and decide how much more info to put on this page because most of what I had initially thought to write here would be more appropriate to the Batch 9, page, the weaving page, and, eventually, the How WeatherWool is Made page.

Greasy wool that has been scoured and combed is known as "top".

 

 

18 August 2023 --- Ralph