I’ve had several people now enquire about my progress with these and I thought I’d post about it for general consumption.

I use the English combs for very fine wool. I tried carding Bowmont on a Pat Green Debs Deluxe carder, following the demonstration I had in every action, but still found it wrecked the wool. It was full of little neps. Anything that fine I feel is too fine even for the Deluxe.

The English wool combs are the answer for these very fine fibres I think. The fibres are pulled/slid apart rather than torn and there seems to be less resistence within the staples. As with all fibre, preparation is the thing and the better you prepare the better the results.

You of course get a worsted preparation – ie the fibres all lie parallel to each other rather than a woollen where the fibres lie at right angles or any other angle!They are heavy but not quite as heavy as I was expecting. Also I don’t tend to spend hours at it so don’t get arm ache!!

All in all, I would say if you have very fine wool, very good kid mohair and cashmere as I do, or if you have something else equally fine and delicate then these combs are ideal. If you only ever use coarser fibres then I’m not sure you gain much over a drum carder. You can prepare fibres for worsted spinning or woollen on a drum carder so that is not an issue.

Martin Hill’s contact details are martinhills@woolcombs.orangehome.co.uk .There are of course, other makers out there and you should shop around for the best deal.

No kids so far today so hence why I have time to write this. I’m actually going to get to my weaving class this afternoon for the first time in 3 weeks! Hooray!!!