Blade shearing or hand shearing is the style of shearing sheep and other animals with fibrous coats (alpaca, llama, goats etc.) with a set of specialized scissors. It is practiced in many parts of the world as both an occupation and a sport. Commercial blade shearers shear on average 140 sheep in an 8-hour working day, but some will shear over 200 sheep in a day. [1]
Shearing is said to be one of the oldest occupations, as people needed fiber to make garments. Originally sheep and other animals were shorn using sharp glass or metal taking tufts of fiber at a time to harvest the fiber but slowly man adapted scissor-like blades to make the job easier. Machine shearing was invented in the early 1880s [2] and slowly took over as the main form of shearing, but there is still a place for blade shearing in certain environments and also as a sport.
Blade shears are similar to scissors, and although most have the hinge at the back of the shears rather than the center, some still have the hinge in the center, e.g. Jakoti shears. More recent design improvements using a acetal bearing system fitted with superior wear resistant tool steel blades has greatly increased the longevity of the shears. Conventional blade shears can come with a single bow, double bows or inverse bows. Double bow shears are by far the most common as they are the most versatile. Single bow shears and inverse bowed shears offer more resistance and are mostly only used for tough shearing sheep. They come in varying lengths from about 10 cm (4 inches) to 18.5 cm (7.25 inches). [3]
Most blade shears can be used straight from the factory. Traditional style shears on the other hand will give usually give a very rough cut and most people would not be able to shear for very long before wearing out their hand. Most blade shearers will either spend time 'doing up' their shears or buy already done up shears from other shearers. The process of doing up shears can take a couple of hours and consists of five main parts: [4]
Specialized equipment such as pull-backs and pendulums for grinders are used for some of the processes above which come at an expense and are a reason why many people buy shears from other shearers. Another reason people buy done-up shears is due to a lack of knowledge about doing-up shears, as many shearers in countries, like England, would only use a couple of pairs of shears in their life and would not spend the time learning how to do up shears for this.
Once the shears are done up the shearers will still maintain the edge regularly. In most commercial shearing, shearers will usually sharpen every one or two sheep to keep the edge honed in order to make shearing easier. Shearers will usually use a sharpening stone or laminated diamond stone to keep the edge on their shears. As the stoning bevel gets too thick shearers will grind back their shears to speed up the sharpening process.
In New Zealand, there are still approximately 40 commercial blade shearers who work between July and October each year. Between these shearers, 400,000 sheep are shorn each year in New Zealand, mostly in Otago and the Canterbury high country. Blade shearers in New Zealand usually travel to sheds in groups of 5 or 6 shearers and usually live on the station during shearing. Often they will stay on the station for up to a week shearing around 1000 sheep per day. Most of the sheep that are blade shorn in New Zealand are fine wooled Merino.
The main reason sheep are still blade shorn in New Zealand is due to the harsh climate at the time of shearing. Blade shearing leaves a thicker cover of wool on the sheep [5] after shearing giving it more protection from storms and UV sunlight damage. Its also been claimed that the wool grows back faster after blade shearing than machine shearing.
Around 17 million of the 29 million sheep in South Africa are still blade shorn today. Because shearers' wages are comparatively very low, [6] equipment costs matter more—and a blade shearer's equipment costs around R2,000 compared to a shearing machine at around R15,000. [7] [6]
Most of the blade shearing in Australia is on stud farms, ewes and rams in order to leave more wool on the sheep or a more natural finish. Some farmers will also trim or shape their sheep using blade shears for showing at competitions.
In The United Kingdom there is still a small number of sheep blade shorn each year. Most of the sheep shorn are in Scotland or in rougher parts of the country where sheep have either been mustered late or they do not have the resources for machine shearing. Many people still also use blade shears for trimming or dagging their sheep. There are a lot of people in the UK who know how to blade shear but most would shear only a few sheep per year. [8]
There is still some blade shearing in South America for Alpaca, Llama and sheep. Blade shearing is used for sheep in parts of Patagonia where the weather can be very harsh and so the extra cover of wool left by blade shears is preferable.
In blade shearing competitions, the competitors are not only judged on how fast they can shear but also how tidily they shear.
Blade shearing as a sport has been through some ups and downs since the 1980s but in the last 2 or three years, it has increased in popularity. In the last 30 years many blade shearing competitions have been discontinued but now, with a resurgence of interest, the number of blade shearing competitions seems to be increasing. There were only 3 blade shearing competitions in Australia 25 years ago but that number has recently increased to at least 19 in 2019. [10]
In the UK this year a show was created specifically for blade shearing and to promote the blade shearing circuit in the UK. This month (October 2016) the Boort show held a blade shearing competition with $3000 for first place, the largest prize for a blade shearing event in the world. [11]
The next big blade shearing competition is the world shearing championships in Scotland, June 2022. Blade shearers from at least 13 countries will be competing including Australia, South Africa, Japan, USA, France, Germany, Ireland, England and more. For the last 20 years, South Africa and Lesotho have dominated the world blade shearing championships. The most recent world champion is Allan Oldfield from New Zealand who won the title at Le Dorat in France in July 2019. [12] [13]
Most commercial blade shearers in New Zealand and South Africa use a similar style of shearing to the traditional Bowen method [14] used in machine shearing. The main differences are that in blade shearing the shearer takes less wool on the first leg of the sheep and they shear around the body of the sheep more than along the sheep.
In Australia Blade shearers usually shear around the sheep even more to leave a smoother finish. They even shear around the backbone instead of along it. This method is especially useful for when you are trying to leave a longer staple of wool on or on very skinny sheep with a high shoulder.
In several countries, they will tie up the sheep for shearing, this means that it is much easier to hold the sheep during shearing and means it cannot escape. This method is ok for less experienced shearers but is much slower so isn't suited for large mobs. There is a competition for this style of shearing at the Royal Welsh show each year [15]
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool.
Wool classing is the production of uniform, predictable, low-risk lines of wool, carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state and classing (grading) it accordingly. Wool classing is done by a wool classer.
Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat, milk, and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin and parchment.
A sheep shearer is a worker who uses (hand-powered)-blade or machine shears to remove wool from domestic sheep during crutching or shearing.
Sheep shearing is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year. The annual shearing most often occurs in a shearing shed, a facility especially designed to process often hundreds and sometimes more than 3,000 sheep per day. A working group of shearers and accompanying wool workers is known as a shearing gang.
Crutching refers to the removal of wool from around the tail and between the rear legs of a sheep for hygiene purposes. It can also refer to removing wool from the heads of sheep. It does not refer to the process of mulesing—a controversial procedure that involves removing of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech (buttocks) of a sheep.
A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, a small paring knife and some sort of serrated blade – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.
Sharpening is the process of creating or refining the edge joining two non-coplanar faces into a converging apex, thereby creating an edge of appropriate shape on a tool or implement designed for cutting. Sharpening is done by removing material on an implement with an abrasive substance harder than the material of the implement, followed sometimes by processes to polish/hone the sharp surface to increase smoothness.
A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South Island. These properties may be thousands of square kilometres in size and run low stocking rates to be able to sustainably provide enough feed and water for the stock.
Shearing sheds are large sheds located on sheep stations to accommodate large scale sheep shearing activities.
The raising of domestic sheep has occurred in nearly every inhabited part of the earth, and the variations in cultures and languages which have kept sheep has produced a vast lexicon of unique terminology used to describe sheep husbandry.
The Golden Shears International Shearing and Woolhandling Championships is the world's most prestigious sheep shearing event.
Shearing the Rams is an 1890 painting by Australian artist Tom Roberts. It depicts sheep shearers plying their trade in a timber shearing shed. Distinctly Australian in character, the painting is a celebration of pastoral life and work, especially "strong, masculine labour", and recognises the role that the wool industry played in the development of the country.
There are many types of shears used to shear or cut sheet metal.
The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company Limited was a London-incorporated public listed company created to capitalize on a sheep-shearing machinery business established by Frederick Wolseley in Australia which was managed by Herbert Austin who went on to manufacture Wolseley and Austin cars.
Jondaryan Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Evanslea Road, Jondaryan, Queensland, Australia. It was built in 1859-60 to replace an earlier, smaller woolshed on the former Jondaryan pastoral station, which was at one stage the largest freehold station in Queensland. The woolshed was the scene of significant labour conflict in the late 1880s and early 1890s, as the station became a test case for the new Queensland Shearers Union in the lead-up to the 1891 Australian shearers' strike.
Isis Downs Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Isisford-Blackall Road, Isisford, Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Kay, MacNicol and Company Engineers and built from 1913 to 1914 by Dorman Long and Company (Melbourne). It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 18 September 2008.
Old Errowanbang Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Errowan Park, Old Errowanbang Lane, Errowanbang, Blayney Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Watt and built in 1886. It is also known as Errowanbang Woolshed. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 23 June 2006.
Windy Station Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Windy Road, Pine Ridge, Liverpool Plains Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Fred B Menkens and built in 1901 by Thomas and William Cowan. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 19 January 2018.
East Warrah Woolshed is a heritage-listed shearing shed at Merriwa-Murrurundi Road, Warrah Creek, Liverpool Plains Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Samuel Craik and built from 1863 to 1864. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 August 2018.