felting-msg - 11/16/99
Felting and fulling of cloth. ³Waulking².
NOTE: See also the files: washing-msg, wool-clean-msg, wool-hist-msg, raingear-msg, weaving-msg, spinning-msg, weaving-lnks, weaving-msg, textiles-msg.
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From: haslock at rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Weaving a rain cloak
Date: 4 Nov 1993 18:10:41 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - DECwest Engineering
Keywords: weaving, rain cloak
Greetings from Fiacha
There was thread on the Celtic list not so long ago about waulking songs. These
are songs sung while felting woolen cloth. Tradition has it that this was
womens work and only opened to men in Nova Scotia in the last 100 years.
However, one felts the cloth before cutting it simply because there is no
guarantee that it will shrink to exactly the size you expect. My suggestion is
that you clear a table and cover it was a plastic sheet. Also expect puddles
to form on the floor. Spread the cloth out on the table and call up as many
friends as can comfortably work at the table. Saturate the wool and add a
lubricant/degreasing agent. The traditional agent is stale urine but flakes
of pure soap may be more acceptable to you and your friends. Knead the frabric
for a couple of hours, then rinse it and let it dry.
Also look up references to fulling as well as felting.
To raise a nap, you need to comb the surface with teasels or an equivalent. An
equivalent is the sticky half of a piece of velcro.
Fiacha
From: priest at vaxsar.vassar.edu (Carolyn Priest-Dorman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: fulling
Date: 9 Nov 93 09:01:11 +1000
Organization: Vikings R Us
Unto the Fishyfolk of the Rialto, greeting from Thora Sharptooth!
Marke (uccxdem at mvs.ucc.okstate.edu) asked:
>How was fulling done? The question is in
>reference to the diggings of 13th-15th century garbage site in
>England(?). Some of the examples of garb from the site were dagged
>without the raw edges being sewn or hemmed. The cloth was supposidely
>fulled. Does anyone know what the process of fulling is?
Fulling is what you do to freshly-woven cloth to make it compact. The dags
you've seen pictured in the Museum of London book were cut into well-fulled
woolen cloth, that is, cloth that was so compacted that it was not prone to
ravel. This was a well-known and desirable property in later medieval wollen
cloths. Some modern woolens will act the same way, if you cut them.
And Ian MacLure (maclure at eos.arc.nasa.gov) replied:
>Fulling, if I remember correctly was the process by which woolen
>garments were dry cleaned prior to the chemical era. It involved
>Fuller's Earth ( Diatomaceous Earth ) and a great deal of heaving
>and thumping. Diatomaceous Earth by the way is composed of the
>skeletons of microscopic prehistoric beasties.
>If you are discussing making of cloth ( wool ) perhaps you mean
>"Milling" rather than "Fulling". Tweed is "milled" or used to be
>in days past. Milling basically involves thumping the cloth back
>and forth across a sturdy table for hours at a time.
"Milling" is a term used for fulling because fulling was accomplished, in the
High Middle Ages and beyond, at fulling mills. Fulling before that period was
accomplished (often in a large workshop setting) without benefit of machinery.
"Fulling" is the more precise term, from a medieval textile perspective.
Wool fulling in period involved working the cloth wet with fuller's earth or
urine (provides a "soapy" feel from the alkalinity). Warmth, moisture, and
friction causes wool to shrink and felt together--it's why you can't machine
wash and dry most cloaks. At Eastern Crown Tourney last week I handled a
lovely piece of wool cloth that had been fulled with urine and hard labor by
Lord Dyfan ab Iago; it had a deliciously luxurious texture and absolutely no
smell of anything objectionable.
Anyone who's interested in more information, please send me e-mail.
*****************************************************************************
Carolyn Priest-Dorman Thora Sharptooth
Poughkeepsie, NY Frosted Hills ("where's that?")
priest at vassar.edu East Kingdom
Gules, three square weaver's tablets in bend Or
*****************************************************************************
From: bloodthorn at sloth.equinox.gen.nz (Jennifer Geard)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: fulling
Date: Tue, 09 Nov 93 23:15:22 GMT
Organization: Lethargy Inc.
Greetings from Pagan.
Marke asks about fulling:
Fulling is part of the process of turning fabric off the loom into wearable
cloth. It involves shrinking and (in the period to which you refer) felting
the cloth, usually by agitating or pummelling it in a solution of fullers'
earth, urine, or lye. (You also need to stretch the fabric, raise the nap,
and shear it.) The density and feltedness of the resulting cloth prevent it
from fraying when cut in dags.
________________________________________________________________________
Jennifer Geard bloodthorn at sloth.equinox.gen.nz
Christchurch, New Zealand
From: nusbache at epas.utoronto.ca (Aryk Nusbacher)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: fulling
Date: 10 Nov 1993 10:19:03 -0500
Organization: EPAS Computing Facility, University of Toronto
Whenever I have a piece of wool that is destined to be made into
mediaeval or renaissance clothing, I give it a wash or two in hot
water in the washing machine (and the hot water in my building is
really good and hot). It produces a reasonable facsimile of fulling;
and is especially useful in any fabric which you will want to stretch.
Aryk
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: motto at cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto)
Subject: Fulling
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 04:38:47 GMT
Fulling is a process done to woven goods to stabilize the fabric before
it is sewn. It can be done for any fiber, not just wool. When the
strands are woven, it is helpful if they can pass each other in the
loom without rubbing. This spacing then acts to make the fabric
unstable (to a degree varying with the spacing) when the weaving is
completed. Seamstresses may be familiar with fabric in which the
grain is not straight. Such fabric was likely woven straight but
not stablized properly.
Fulling is not the same as felting. Fulling without felting can be
accomplished as was. Fulling was done frequently by WALKING over the
finished fabric. In fact, Fuller and Walker are both surnames which
come from that same occupation because walking was the way it was done.
When you walk on the fabric, you rub the fibers across and against
one another and tiny surface fibers twist into each other and bind
the strands in place. It is sort of like the way "pills" build up
on your clothes, only it is done on purpose, and takes place on the
insides of the fabric rather than the outside.
Felting is a process which causes the fibers to merge into each other
through a combination of shrinkage and the intermeshing of fibers
due to friction.
Yours in Service,
Rosaline Weaver
(Note the nifty new Surname!)
MKA Mary Otto
From: haslock at rust.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fulling
Date: 12 Nov 1993 19:46:56 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation - DECwest Engineering
Greetings from Fiacha,
While I am glad the subject is being talked about, I could wish for some more
reliable data for the answers.
Marian of Clan Kyle seems to assume that the purpose of fulling was to
prevent the cut cloth from fraying. I seriously doubt that this was the case.
Fraying is prevented by adding a sewn hem, even on a seam.
According to Webster, fulling is a term that applies only to wollen cloth.
This is emminently reasonable since wool is the only natural fiber that can
be turned into felt and the felting process is what fulling is all about.
Applying a similar process to linen would result in a thinner, softer fabric.
Silk would be unaffected.
The fibers of wool, unlike any other, have microscopic scales. The heat and
lubricants cause the scales to open (like a dry pinecone). The movement of
the fibres caused by the kneading of the fabric encourages the fibers to
adopt their relaxed form (short and twisty rather than long and straight).
The open scales lock onto open scales in adjacent fibers. When the fabric
cools and the lubricants are rinsed away, the scales try to close again.
The scales that are interlocked, hold fibers together.
Linen is made of vegetable fibers that are built up in rings like the grain of
a tree trunk. Unlike a tree trunk, the outer rings are more brittle than the
inner rings. Abusing linen causes the out, brittle, rings to shatter and
separate from the inner more flexible fiber. Lubricants allow the shards to
work out of the cloth. Thus, washing linen results in thinner more flexible
fibers and so thinner more flixible cloth. However, the fibers need moisture
to be flexible. Ironing creases into linen and storing the result in a dry
place will break fibers when the cloth is unfolded.
Silk can be thought of as a natural plastic with its own unique set of handling
rules.
I would like to talk about finishing cloth, but I do not know enough about the
subject. I know that most of the books on weaving instruct the weaver to
wash the cloth when it is taken off the loom. I suspect that this is to allow
any unevenness in the tension of the various threads to work itself out.
However, this is not the same as fulling.
As a final note, one of the books I read asserted that there were between 9 and
50 trades involved in the production of cloth in the 15th century. Fulling was
only one of them (one of these days, I would like to find out what they all
were).
I noted a while ago the Waulkin songs of the Scots. I would suggest that this
is the the Gaelic term for fulling and that Walker is derived from it. I do
not believe that fulling was ever achieved by merely walking on the cloth. As
usual, you are requested to prove me wrong so that I can learn something new.
Fiacha
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: motto at cbnewsf.cb.att.com (mary.rita.otto)
Subject: Re: Fulling
Organization: AT&T
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1993 22:50:47 GMT
Fiacha had said about fulling:
>According to Webster, fulling is a term that applies only to wollen cloth.
>This is emminently reasonable since wool is the only natural fiber that can
>be turned into felt and the felting process is what fulling is all about.
>
I would beg to differ on that. I have, for example, a fine Beaver Felt
hat. Wool is not the only fiber which can be felted.
The microscopic fiber structure of wool is not as important as the
macroscopic spun texture of the yarns actually woven. It is the tangling
of exterior fiber strands which takes place in fulling, and with a
spun fiber, even a linen, this can take place. (Linen has wonderfully
long fibers). Multiple fibers must be spun together to make yarn of
any length longer than the cut plant material or sheared hair, wool,
fur, orlon pelt, whatever. It is the overlaps between the individual
spun fibers, and their ends, sticking out of the yarn like little hairs
that bind to each other in the fulling process.
>Applying a similar process to linen would result in a thinner, softer fabric.
Not necessarily. Getting the fibers to bind to each other in a cross-wise
manner may in fact stiffen the fabric. We are not breaking down the
individual fibers, we are entangling the fuzzy fiber ends.
>Silk would be unaffected.
Again, I must disagree. Silk, like the others, is spun of multiple fibers
can is affected similarly. Further, you can't have worked with silk
or you would know how easily it pills and binds to itself when strands
rub across each other. That, I believe, is related to the fine-ness of
the spun fibers which means there are more ends to interact, and more
chances for an individual fiber to break and create more ends to
entangle and bind.
>I would like to talk about finishing cloth, but I do not know enough about the
>subject. I know that most of the books on weaving instruct the weaver to
>wash the cloth when it is taken off the loom. I suspect that this is to allow
>any unevenness in the tension of the various threads to work itself out.
>However, this is not the same as fulling.
>
No. This would be the same as "blocking". The blocking is a process
of washing away skin oils and any surface dirt from the finished work,
and allowing any natural minor shrinkage to occur. It is normally
done in cold water to avoid shrinkage, but to allow the fibers to
relax, since they were under tension during the weaving process. Some
fabrics, however, are not so treated. Fulling is a further process
which becomes more useful and important as fewer threads per inch
are used and the instabilities between thread becomes proportionately
more important.
As for the origin of Walker and the walking method of fulling, I will
have to go back to the library to find that reference.
Rosaline Weaver
Shire of Rokkehealdon
MK
MKA Mary Otto
From: hrjones at uclink.berkeley.edu (Heather Rose Jones)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Fulling
Date: 13 Nov 1993 02:50:56 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
In article <CGEI4n.2Do at cbfsb.cb.att.com>,
mary.rita.otto <motto at cbnewsf.cb.att.com> wrote:
>
>I would beg to differ on that. I have, for example, a fine Beaver Felt
>hat. Wool is not the only fiber which can be felted.
>
>>Applying a similar process to linen would result in a thinner, softer fabric.
>
>Not necessarily. Getting the fibers to bind to each other in a cross-wise
>manner may in fact stiffen the fabric. We are not breaking down the
>individual fibers, we are entangling the fuzzy fiber ends.
>
>>Silk would be unaffected.
>Again, I must disagree. Silk, like the others, is spun of multiple fibers
>can is affected similarly. Further, you can't have worked with silk
If I might suggest a small reality-check for the theory that linen and
silk undergo the same reactions as wool in a "fulling environment",
take a length each of woolen, linen, and silk fabrics; toss them in the
washing machine; add soap and hot water; agitate strongly. I guarantee you
that the woolen fabric will shrink up, become thicker and more felt-like,
and generally assume a fulled appearance. The linen fabric will become
(slightly) softer. The silk - well, it depends on the fabric (i.e., raw
versus processed, etc.). It will probably become slightly softer. It
will _not_ "felt-up" to any degree whatsoever. (The only guaranteed effect
is that the color will probably run.)
These observations are not based on theory, but on long-time observation
of what actual fabrics do in my washing machine. The post that claimed
that only wool could be fulled was a little off - only _animal_ fibers
can be fulled, due to the microscopic nature of the fibers, as previously
noted. Other fibers can merely be washed.
Keridwen f. Morgan Glasfryn
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: augment at world.std.com (Michael Bergman)
Subject: Re: Fulling
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1993 19:56:39 GMT
I believe that "Waulking" refers to a process where the women sit
around a tub of hot water, pulling and folding and generally bashing
the fabric with their hands, rather than literally walking on the
cloth. As the previous poster mentioned, heat and moisture are also
essential parts of the process -- if you laid out a bolt of cloth on
the ground, even after dunking it in boiling water, it would rapidly
get cold, if not dry -- not to mention dirty!
Fulling is done to woven wool cloth, and causes the fibers to felt
together, increasing the strength, thickness, and warmth of the cloth.
Felting is done to wool fibers, and some others (under special
circumtances), producing cloth in the process, which is not woven, and
is referred to as felt. Felt does not usually have a grain, as woven
goods do. Felt is generally not as strong as an equal thickness of
woven fabric, but you can do odd things to it, such as stretching it to
make hats, which you cannot do with woven fabric.
The (modern) books on felting that I've looked at recomend the use of
a washing machine as a way to subject the fibers to heat, moisture,
and being beaten, without having to do all that work yourself. Some