Felting Needles

Description

Felting needles- some things to consider when choosing specific needles by Pat Spark

While there are several hundred different types of needles used by the industry, the home felter only has access to a few different types.  Some factors to consider when deciding on a needle type for a project are:

Needle gauge. There are different sized needles for different projects.  The 32 gauge is for needling hair onto vinyl dolls and for needling coarse fiber such as Karakul.  (I call this the coarse needle.) The 36 gauge needles are used for needling medium fleece such as Romney or Cotswold.    (I call this a medium needle.)  There are also 40 and even finer gauge needles.  The higher the number with wire (as with thread), the finer the diameter.  So 40 is smaller than 36.  I use the 40 for needling very fine fibers and for needling fine pre-felts onto silk cloth backgrounds. (I call this needle the extra-fine needle.) I use the 38 for merino fibers and call it a fine needle.  I like this needle for needling merino pre-felts onto a cotton cloth ground. The coarser needles are good for preliminary work, doing the deep penetration necessary to “rough” in a sculpture for instance.  The finer needles are better for detail work done when the felt is already partially hardened by the coarser blades.  You do not need to penetrate deeply into the felt surface to add details and the finer gauge leaves less of a hole.

Blade style. While there are several blade styles, there are two blade styles that most needle felters use.  The most common is the triangular blade.  This blade is shaped like a leather needle, with three sharp edges.  The notches are along these sharp edges.  The other type of blade is the star blade.  This one has four edges and is shaped somewhat like a star.  There are more notches since there are more than 3 edges.  This needle is good for helping to attach fine fiber to cloth.  It is also good for detail work.

Notch placement and depth.  On some needles available to us, the notches are placed about 1/8 inch away (3.2 mm) from the point and on others, the notches are placed about 3/8 inch away from the point.  If the notches are closer to the point, you won’t have to push down with as much effort to start getting the fibers to tangle.   NOTE: One of the needles, the 32, has all of it’s notches along one edge of the needle, even though it has three edges.  The two plain edges help to pass the needle through the fiber while the notched edge pushes the fiber down so it can tangle.

Needles for the Clover Needle Tool

Clover Company has designed a felting needle tool that has a nice guard that comes down and covers the needles for the user’s protection.  This is great, but the cover is not very long and the longer felting needles are not guarded by the cover since they come down below it.  We carry several needles that will work with this special tool.  Our coarse needle (gauge 32), star fine (gauge 38), extra fine (gauge 40) and ultra fine (gauge 42) do fit this needle tool.  When using  the longer needles  cover the tips with a Styrofoam ball to protect them and yourself.

Sampler Pack

These samplers are packaged with 6 of the commonly used sizes: Coarse (32), Medium (36) Triangular, Fine (38) Triangular, Fine (38) Star, Extra Fine (40) Triangular, Ultra-fine (42) Triangular. The sampler pack is useful for the person who wants to try different needle sizes.  Shop owners, the Felting Needle Sampler Pack is contained in a plastic, lock top bag for ease of display.

Wholesale (20 or more packs) $5.00 per package, plus shipping and handling.
(Sampler packs can be mixed with triangular blade 5-packs to make the 20 or more packs.)
Retail $8.00 per package, plus shipping and handling.

Know the type of Needles you want?  Here is the pricing information:

Triangular Style Blades

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Packaging	Coarse Triangular (32) notches start 3/8 inch from tip	Medium Triangular (36) notches start 1/8 inch from tip	Fine  Triangular (38) notches start 1/8 inch from tip	Extra Fine Triangular (40) notches start 1/8 inch from tip	Ultra Fine Triangular (42) notches start 1/8 inch from tip
FIVE PACK Package of 5 needles, with 2 pages of instructions written by Pat Spark	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.00 per package, Retail $11.00 per package	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.00 per package, plus Retail $11.00 per package	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.00 per packageRetail $11.00 per package	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.00 per package Retail $11.00 per package	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.50 per package, Retail $12.00 per package
BULK Un-packaged needles without instructions, but with blade cover.	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. ($26.00	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. $22.00	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. $25.00	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. ($26.00 plus shipping)	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. ($30.00 plus shipping)

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Star Style Blades

	Fine Star (38) notches start 1/8 inch from tip
FIVE PACK Package of 5 needles, with 2 pages of instructions written by Pat Spark	Wholesale (20 or more packages) $6.00 per packageRetail $12.00 per package, plus S & H
BULK Un-packaged needles without instructions, but with blade cover.	Sold only in lots of 50 needles. ($32.00 plus shipping)

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By  popular demand–We now also carry 32 stars-32.00 for 50  and 36 stars-32.00- in bulk packaging.