Once the Zwartbles wool has been rinsed twice it is then dried in the drying room until it is completely dry. It is brought out in bags and placed on the floor in front of the teasing machine. I call it the fluffing machine as it fluffs wool up to twice its size & makes it so soft.
Dried Zwartbles Sheep Wool Piled & Readying for Teasing
Once the dry wool is piled up in a square it is sprinkled with an emulsion of water and natural sheep oil, lanolin, to return a bit of moister to the fibre.
Zwartbles Wool Sprinkled with Lanolin Emulsion, Just Before Teasing
The Teasing Machine is started up, her belts start to turn in their figure of eight as wheels, gears & cogs clink together to start the teasing of the wool.
Starting up the Teasing Machine
Teasing Machine Belts Starting to Turn
Teasing Machine Wheels
Wool is then loaded by the armful onto wooden slatted feed sheet, which rolls into the machine, feeding the wool into the teaser.
Loading Zwartbles Wool onto Teasing Machine
Feeding Wool into Teasing Machine
Wool Spread Across Teasing Machine’s Wooden Slats
As the wool is fed into the Teasing machine it is then blown out the far end into a huge fluffy pile of wool so soft and light with twice the volume that went into the feed end.
Teaser Blowing out Fluffy Flakes of Wool
Due to the age of these machines there is a regular oiling routine to keep everything running smoothly.
Spraying the Teasing Machine Drive-Belt With a Spot of Belt Sray
Once all the wool has been teased it must be again collected by hand into big wool sacks which are hanging from ceiling hooks.
Collecting up Teased Wool
Bringing by the Arm Full to the Hanging Sack
Stuffing Freshly Teased Wool into huge Sack
Once the sack is filled with the freshly teased wool it is dragged through narrow corridors of the mill to the basement room where the huge carding machine lies in wait for the next step in the wools process to become yarn for weaving and knitting.
Freshly Teased Bag of Wool Dragged Towards Carding Room
