It was incredibly dry today and I was just cutting some kits and when I reached for the hand cream, I thought.... gee I should post this trick.
When you are cutting wool with your machine, sometimes the strips stick to the blade and roll under the wheel and back up the inside. Sometimes you try to dig them out and maybe reverse the handle to back up and retrieve it, but then you end up butchering the strips. It keeps happening over and over and you get a bit flustered. All you want to do is cut fast and get hooking!
Sometimes the strips are sticking and you try blowing hot air on it and flick it off the wheel but it just keeps wanting to wrap around the blade. Cutting takes forever! Dry winter days are the culprit and even worse, if you've just pulled your wool out of the dryer with a static charge running though it, cutting is almost impossible. Frustrating? Tell us about it! At the studio we cut more wool than most and let me tell you, static cling is aggravating! And then after the wool is cut it keeps sticking to your hands as you try to lay it out straight on the table to tie into a bundle. Yup...we've all been there and will be again, time after time. Oh joy! If only someone could invent a way to stop this madness!!
The answer is so simple you'll kick yourself for not thinking of. Before you start to cut, get out a bottle of hand cream and add the teeniest bit on the wrist of the hand that cranks the handle. Don’t get it on that hand as it will slip and slide as you turn the handle and you don’t want a buildup of hand cream there. Now with your fingers of the hand that touches the wool as it feeds through the blade, rub them well into the dob of cream...the palm doesn't matter as it doesn’t touch the wool. I guarantee, the wool will feed straight through without any static charge build-up!
Your hand is the culprit. It is probably dry and as the wool passes under your fingers it causes friction and creates a static charge, like walking along a carpet and shuffling your feet. When the charged wool touches the blade, it wants to stick to the metal. No matter what cutter you use this tip will work.
When you are cutting wool with your machine, sometimes the strips stick to the blade and roll under the wheel and back up the inside. Sometimes you try to dig them out and maybe reverse the handle to back up and retrieve it, but then you end up butchering the strips. It keeps happening over and over and you get a bit flustered. All you want to do is cut fast and get hooking!
Sometimes the strips are sticking and you try blowing hot air on it and flick it off the wheel but it just keeps wanting to wrap around the blade. Cutting takes forever! Dry winter days are the culprit and even worse, if you've just pulled your wool out of the dryer with a static charge running though it, cutting is almost impossible. Frustrating? Tell us about it! At the studio we cut more wool than most and let me tell you, static cling is aggravating! And then after the wool is cut it keeps sticking to your hands as you try to lay it out straight on the table to tie into a bundle. Yup...we've all been there and will be again, time after time. Oh joy! If only someone could invent a way to stop this madness!!
The answer is so simple you'll kick yourself for not thinking of. Before you start to cut, get out a bottle of hand cream and add the teeniest bit on the wrist of the hand that cranks the handle. Don’t get it on that hand as it will slip and slide as you turn the handle and you don’t want a buildup of hand cream there. Now with your fingers of the hand that touches the wool as it feeds through the blade, rub them well into the dob of cream...the palm doesn't matter as it doesn’t touch the wool. I guarantee, the wool will feed straight through without any static charge build-up!
Your hand is the culprit. It is probably dry and as the wool passes under your fingers it causes friction and creates a static charge, like walking along a carpet and shuffling your feet. When the charged wool touches the blade, it wants to stick to the metal. No matter what cutter you use this tip will work.
Wool tends to bunch and stick to the cutter blades when there is a static buildup from the dry air of winter or if taken from the dryer.
 A dob of hand cream on the wrist of the hand that turns the handle. |  Rub the fingers of the hand that will hold the wool in the hand cream. |
Press down on the wool with your fingers, firm enough to keep the wool running smoothly but loosely enough that the wool can be pulled beneath it into the cutting blade rotation. You can see that the cut strips coming out of the blades is straight and not sticking or bunching.
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