What's old is new again

Recently the talk of the Fiber Prep group on Ravelry is about "blending boards". It's like a drum carder, but without the drum. A flat surface covered in carding cloth. During the same week this was impressing many on Ravelry, hubby and I were in a thrift store where he spotted this! Naturally it had to come with me. (This model is not the same as what the current buzz is about.)

So it is a heavy wooden box construction, with a separate handle that also has carding cloth on it. The manufacturer is Louet, a good name in spinning circles. A little vacuuming to clean out the remains from the previous owner and I was ready to roll.

Here is the end on view, so you can see how the two sets of tines are proximal to one another. The batts in the back ground came off of an Ashford drum carder.

And here is a view of the pegs on the handle which help to guide you in a straight path and you sweep away from yourself.

In this image you can just see two wool locks to the right of the device. My starting point is a mystery wool that was a gift from a lady I bought a wheel from. It is quite crimpy and has a staple length of about four inches. I have flicked open a few locks and placed them on the carding board.

Here is the result after two or three passes with the handle. I was lifting up the handle slightly as I came to the end of the pass. I saw that hint somewhere on an older Ravelry post where the person was familiar with a similar device. Some of the Louet models have two "wheels" on either side of the box and a roller covered in carding cloth, instead of this handle design.

I had this dowel within easy reach of the board and so thought I could roll the mini-batt off with its assistance. It came up so easily and neatly! No residual fibre remained in the cloth!

And with the dowel removed, there was a little roll just begging to be spun at the wheel! While I do own a drum carder, it is a joint custody situation, and so when it's my friend's turn to have the drum carder can play with this new toy! Three cheers for thrift stores and reusing old things.