Hand Carders & Flickers
Preparing your wool fleece with hand carders is an easy and low cost way of getting your fiber ready for spinning and felting. We recommend that you wash your wool fibers before processing so that the teeth of the carders do not get gummed up with the lanolin. More fiber tips below.
Ashford Hand Carders
Ashford Hand Carders- Wool or Cotton
Ashford hand carders with a curved carding surface and a nice contoured handle for preparing fleece or other fibers for spinning.These handles can easily be attached to the carding area. Choose from 72 teeth for all wool fibers or 108 teeth for fine wools and cotton.
Sold in pairs.
Ashford Small Hand Carders
Ashford
smaller, light weight handcarders for smaller jobs or if you have
wrist or joint problems. 72 tpi for wool fleeces and fibers or 108 tpi for
fine wools, silk or cotton.
Handles can easily be attached to the carding area. Sold in pairs
Flick Cards - Flickers
Ashford Flicker
Ashford flicker has 72 teeth and a horizontal carding surface.
Great for pre-teasing or carding smaller amounts of fibers.
Maintenance Tips for Hand Carders
Regardless of what brand you buy, your hand carders should last you for many years to come. This low cost fiber preparation equipment will enable you to get your washed fleece ready for spinning or felting. To make sure your hand carders perform as they should we recommend the following:
Mark you carders left and right and use them accordingly. This will allow the teeth to wear more evenly and last longer.
Never, never push your hand cards together all the way and then pull. This may damage the wire teeth. While carding your fibers the teeth should barely touch, and your motion should be similar to a gentle rocking motion. Preparing your fleece should not be strenuous, but easy and comfortable to do.
Wash your fiber or fleece before carding. This will remove some of the vegetable matter and if you are working with wool, most of the lanolin. Doing so will not only clean your fleece, but also preserve your carders, since the lanolin and dirt of a fleece can gum up the wire teeth of the carding surface.
Never, never card wet or damp fibers or leave your tools outside over night or even in the rain. This will cause the teeth to rust. Once this has happened you will need to replace the carding cloth or buy a new pair.
Pre-tease if necessary. Are the tips of your fleece felted "matted" together? If so you will need to pull the tips apart before you card them. In rare cases in which the fibers are very much felted together not even pre-teasing will help and you may want to use this sort of wool for pillow stuffing or felting projects instead.
My pair of carders has lasted me over 10 years now and yours will too if you take care of them. I even "abused" mine, they seem to make a good lint and yarn scarps cleaner for my woven rugs. ;-)
Have lost of fleeces? Check out our Drum Carders
