Needle Quality
As needle felting has become very popular there has been an influx of dubious quality far eastern made needles. Having had a quality inspection made the results show poorly formed barbs that are likely to cut fibres. Poor quality hardening and tempering making them brittle. Shaft diameters not being precise, this could cause problems in fitting into precision holding tools.
They are difficult to identify so customers have to satisfy themselves of the source of supply.
Needless to say we have never stocked them.
The star needle has 4 working edges, so making it slightly faster to work with.
A finer alternative to the 36 gauge and can be an advantage when working with fine fibres. Some felters like this as it makes a smaller hole and felts the fibres faster.
These needles allow the pre-felting process to take place without the need for soap and water, as well as being used to create 3D forms. To do this they have a series of barbs along the working edge that grab the fibres and move them around. They are produced in different thickness gauges; the larger the needle gauge the finer the needle.
Whilst all of the needles will tolerate a small amount of bending, too much and they will break. As such a straight in and-and-out action will ensure a long life for the needle. A well used needle will wear out the barbs before it breaks.
All our needles are high quality European manufacture, not low quality far eastern made.
These needles will fit into all of the needle felting tools we stock.
Safety
These needles, like all sharp tools, need treating with care. They are not suitable for use by children without close supervision. All our needles are packed in robust slide lock boxes. Please keep them in these boxes when not in use.
History of the felting needle
Felting needles are an industrial product designed for use in large bed felting machines using thousands of needles. In the 1970/80's it was discovered in America that they could be used singly by hand and needlefelting began to be developed as a craft.
Back in the mid 1800's the method of cutting notches into wire was developed and the first needlepunch looms came into production making flat sheets of felt.
The needle looms consist of steel plates which can be 3 metres wide full of thousands of needles going up and down at over 1,000 strokes per minute. carded fibre is passed under them in a continous flow. In a day a needle will make around half a million strokes and will run for weeks until worn smooth. They are actually changed when the ability of the barb to entangle the fibres is lost. Very rarely do they break.This is a measure of how robust they are. It would take a lot of effort for a handfelter to wear out needles.
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