Not wood working but definitely hand tools made using wood so I guess that is enough to qualify for this subform.
SWMBO does not have enough hobbies so recently she got back to wool spinning and has started needlfelting.
She starts from raw wood off the sheeps back so carding, washing, more carding, maybe more washing and dyeing and then more carding and finally needle felting or spinning.
She has a couple of small carding brushes but she asked me if I would make some carding combs.
These are vicious looking things like this.
The timber is Sheoak and the teeth are made from 2.4mm TIG welding rods epoxied in place.
Attachment 483781
The idea is to grab a couple of handfuls of wool (it can be quite dirty ie sees and straw and $%^) and spear it onto one comb and then tease the wool away using the other comb. The wool that comes across is mostly the longer cleaner bits and most of dirt and short stuff stays on the original comb and gets thrown away Then go the other way and repeat that until you get a surprising clean wool that has most of its fibres aligned in one direction.
Although the holes for the teeth were drilled with a drill press to a tight fit, the teeth would not stand straight as they get slightly bent during the cutting and sharpening process so I made a jig to hold them straight while the epoxy dried.
Attachment 483782
SWMBO likes them so much she has asked for two more combs with thicker teeth and on supports that can be clamped to a table.
Here are a couple of her starter projects.
They are made by twisting up various shapes and sizes of balls of wool and stabbing them with needles until they hold together. Then the pieces are held together and more needles stabbed into them to hold the piece together.
The dog has som of our dogs fur incorporated into the body.
She has also added whiskers using horse hair.
Tomorrow the getting some Alpaca hair to play with
Attachment 483784
I've also made her a bunch of wooden formers from Olive wood and Jarrah. These are used to form up arms, legs, ears etc.
