Best sheep shears?????

not the best... but she is sheared!!!

Before


The shears didn't work so I went back to clippers



After


I'm going to get shears for amazon next. I'll let you all know.

Beautiful fleece! Are you going to do some spinning?

Our friends shear with good scissors.  They have the sheep on a milking stand and mother and daughter shear from both sides at once.  Works well for them although I've never tried it.  The fleece has very few second cuts and the sheep looks pretty smooth afterwards.  They have used all different methods and always come back to scissors.

Judith Browning wrote:Beautiful fleece! Are you going to do some spinning?

Our friends shear with good scissors.  They have the sheep on a milking stand and mother and daughter shear from both sides at once.  Works well for them although I've never tried it.  The fleece has very few second cuts and the sheep looks pretty smooth afterwards.  They have used all different methods and always come back to scissors.

Hi Judith,

Yes, I'm leaning how to spin this year. I can not wait!!! any good books or youtube to watch?

That's a good point! It took a lot longer to shear her, the ram is next. But I leaned a lot. She did so well too. I need to get better

I learned to spin 'pre-video' so I don't know what ones would be helpful...I've watched a few and there are so many out there.

If you are thinking of learning on a drop spindle the little book I sent to the gappers a few years back  might still be around somewhere along with a few of my husband's drop spindles?

And r ranson has excellent drop spindle instruction available as an e-book here  https://permies.com/t/spinyarn

A drop spindle is a great way to get a feel for the fiber before the investment of a wheel.

A suggestion, if you haven't already, you might want to 'skirt' the fleece and sort the fiber before storing.  You'll enjoy preparing the wool to spin much more if the worst of the tags, etc. are removed.

I remember that r ranson has instruction about that also.

https://permies.com/t/95837/fiber-arts/Tossing-fleece

I know this thread is old, if you're still working sheep I like the Berger brand shears. Currently I use the 5 inch blade, but I'm curious to get a second pair in the 6.5 inch size.  They will dull with each sheep and need to be cleaned and sharpened each time.  I try to treat them like a very good knife in the sense that they don't get left outside, or put in the dirt etc.

I also shear into a large cardboard box trying to avoid putting the fleece back onto the ground to pickup more dirty bits.

We had sheep for 23 years, usually 2 to 4 at a time. We sheared with a Fiskars sewing scissors - easy on the hands. A dog collar and leash to tie them to a fence post where they stayed standing for most of the shearing. After opening a "trail" from the head to the tail, we would shear each side separately, often with both my husband and myself each wielding a scissors. After the sides, neck and chest were finished and removed, we would tip the sheep onto her side and do the belly and crappy butt wool for the compost, trim hooves, and then they were done. One year a neighbor offered to pick up our sheep and take them to her farm where whe was having her sheep sheared. It was the worst experience amd I was sorry we did it, even though the neighbor meant well. Besides the truck ride, the shearing was hard on the girls and they ended up with several nicks on top of it all. And it took way longer than if I had done the shearing by hand at home.

Larisa, thanks for sharing your experience.  

I'm wondering about the method you used, I have seen a couple other folks shear this way (trail down the back breaking fleece into multiple pieces).  Were you still able to sell that wool for good prices?  My understanding is that people are looking for whole fleeces that are connected.  I've only been selling my wool locally for 2 years and have done ok in the sense that I've sold 90% of my fleeces at this point (for $40-$60, and thinking I should raise prices this year to more accurately reflect my labor).  So I hesitate to break a trail down the center of the back and end up with not connected single fleece from each animal, but again I've only been selling wool for a couple years so maybe there's something I'm missing?

We never sold any of our wool as I raised it for our own use. If you're selling whole fleeces this method probably would leave much to be desired as it's hard to keep the sides intact as you go and often we would remove a bunch that was hanging down. Since I hand washed and combed I would process about half of a fleece at a time and that was workable for me. If you were sending off fleece for commercial carding, I think it would be fine in smaller chunks of fleece. Do many folks buy wool in the fleece or are most wanting already carded roving for spinning or batts for felting? Not familiar with market demands at all.