Fiber Pickers vs Wool Combs ( Flickr )
The battle continues, who will win. Ok Ok, I know I'm acting a wee bit strange here. Alrighty then, what I found out about these incredible pieces of equipment is.
The Fiber Pickers - which would be in the form of a bench or swing, make the job of opening up the fiber strands easier and quicker. You can open up and pick a fleece in 10 minutes. You will have to use your elbow grease on these pieces of equipment cuz you are still sliding your arm back and forth. It looks like when you watch an example of one of these pickers in action that it will be so painful on your arm.
Here is the bit of research that I found out on these two. Bench or Swing Picker!
Talked to a bunch of alpaca farms that are using either the Bench or The Swing and they all loved them equally. The farms were amazed at how easy it was to use, it didn't cause any types of discomfort while manuvering the slide action with your arms. The fiber was so opened up and debrie fell out, which is a spinners or felters nightmare.... They also shared with me that the more they placed the fibers back thru the unit, that the fibers were even more opened up. " One farm said, it looks like clouds, in the sky".
So with this info, I will probably purchase one of these units, for the ease of use and since I have so much alpaca fleece on my hands. So folks I truly highly recommend either one of these.
Now if you don't have the cash, to get one of these units. You can purchase Flickr cards. They are known as wool combs. They work very similar as the larger pickers, but its all done by hand. You basically grab the fleece in your hand and flick open the ends prior to running the fleece into the drum carder.
So again whatever your fleece weapon will be, your fleece will be opened up and ready for processing. Lets get Fiber Picken!!!!!!
