Combing (under construction)

This is part of my Tegle Recreation to recreate a period piece of tablet weaving while comparing period methods to modern ones by using multiple combinations of materials and methods and seeing how they impact the finished piece

While spinning can be done from the lock (the arrangement of the fibers as it was on the sheep), the evidence points to substantial preparation techniques being employed, with wool combs being the primary method used to prepare the fleece. Wool combs existed in a variety of styles, ranging from a single plate with teeth cut out as seen more in Roman cultures to single row Norse combs to double row later period Anglo-Saxon finds (Rogers 1721). The different lengths of tines, spacing of the tines, and how many rows all will impact how the fibers are arranged in the combed fleece. Rogers, an expert in textiles of this period, states that "there is no clear evidence for how this was done in the 5th and 6th centuries" and posits that the Roman method may still have been used ("Cloth" 15).

The combs in period were also different from what we think of as wool combs today. "One-row combs are recorded from Viking graves [from sites in Denmark and the Northern Isles]" which would perform differently than the later period multi-row and longer toothed combs. Later Viking wool combs from the Bergen museum show single row combs in use in the 10th century as well. As single rows of teeth are seen in Roman period (though made entirely of iron plate) and past to the 10th century in Norway, single row teeth seem to be the most appropriate option for an early Norwegian wool comb (Rogers "Cloth" 21). As such, I worked from slightly later period (7th century) Anglo Saxon research combined with examining Roman British wool combing to create a best estimate for the size and spacing of the tines on my combs.

Creating the Combs

I created combs using 3.5 inch-long nails, roughly in keeping with the 90-110mm size seen in extant finds and placed in a single row (Rogers 1727). The 10th century finds are spaced much closer together than the earlier Anglo-Saxon combs, so I modeled the size and shape from the 7th-8th century Anglo-Saxon wool combs listed in Rogers's analysis of York textile-related find in hopes that the earlier styles would be a better match for the unknown 5th-6th century method (1721).