Types of Combs & General Combing Instructions
Hackle
A Blending Hackle is a specialized tool used to
blend colours or fibers of different types. Clamped securely to a table, fibers
of similar lengths
are loaded onto the tines and drawn through by hand or with a diz to get the
desired
blend. Using the diz is the last step to making a combed top after the
blending is complete. The wool is drawn off the comb through the diz, which is a
disc or oval made of wood, plastic, or cardboard with a hole in the middle.
English Combs
Viking Combs
General Combing instructions
- Start with washed fleece. It should not be matted, and relatively VM-free (VM is vegetable matter, those bits of hay and burrs that our fiber friends seem to love getting in their coats). The staple length (length of individual fibers) should be 3 inches or more, and should be relatively uniform throughout the fiber you are combing. (Note: these instructions are written by a right-handed person, if you are left handed, you may find switching directions more comfortable.)
- Hold one comb in your left hand, resting it on either (or both) leg with the tines at the edge of your leg. Take a lock with the shorn end pointing toward the handle, holding it parallel to the handle (i.e. horizontally) and put about 1/4" of the shorn end "behind" the tines, pushing the lock down the tines to the base of the comb. Repeat this, placing locks along the length of the comb and then on top of the existing locks, until the comb is about 1/3 full.
- Hold your left hand stationary with the filled comb tines up. Take the other comb in your right hand and, just catching the ends of the locks at the top of the base comb, hold the comb so its tines are at right angles to the base combs, and comb away from your body with a circular motion to your right. This circular motion makes sure you have a complete pass of the comb without entering into the locks on the comb too deeply. You should feel a slight catch-and-release as you sweep the comb to, through, and away from the locks on the comb. Some of the locks will transfer to the right-hand comb. Repeat this motion
