Paradise Fibers Blending Board – Small Paradise Fibers Woodshop

The Paradise Fibers 10.5″ Blending Board is the ultimate fiber preparation tool with an 11.5″ x 8.5″ working area available in 54, 72, 90, 120, and 190 TPI for all your fiber needs. These high-grade laminate wood boards are great for absolute control of your blending, ultra-consistent fiber preparation, and creating the most awesome rolags with repeatability that’s unmatched. This smaller version is slightly narrower than the Large Blending Board to accommodate your workspace.

Paradise Fibers tools are painstakingly created with high levels of craftsmanship and artistry. You are sure to be pleased with the outstanding woodwork and details put into these beautifully built fiber processing tools.

Blending Board features:

• 3 position keel
• Very sticky rubber feet on both the board itself and on the bottom of the keel (so it can’t move around on a table!)
• Offered in the following sizes: 54, 72, 90, 120, and 190 tpi
• Overall measurements are: 15 ¼ by 10.5 inches with a full 11 1/2″  by 8 1/2″ working area
• Consisting of  laminated wood, this thing is tough!  Wood will be either laminated Alder Wood or Grade a-b Veneered Plywood.
• Easily creates ½ ounce batts, top, or rolags, which all depends on your choice of fiber.
• Included with board:
• ¼”, 3/8” and ½” Maple dowel for removing your  or rolags
• 2” and 3” standard chip brush to help draft or apply fiber.

We also make a Mini Carder or Blending Brush that works perfectly with these boards: Blending Brush

Check out our blog for videos and tutorials on how to use our Blending Boards to create the rolag of your dreams!

How to choose the correct Teeth Per Inch (TPI):

The carding cloth’s teeth per inch (tpi) measures how densely the teeth are packed together. That density determines how much texture of roving is removed and how much color is blended in a single pass. The higher the number, the finer the carding cloth and the more smooth and blended the fiber becomes. 

Think of tpi as it applies to a hairbrush: If you have fine hair, you use a brush with lots of bristles close together. This gives a smooth finish. When you have curly hair, you use a wide-tooth comb or a brush with stiff bristles that are far apart. These bristles leave the curls together rather than separating and smoothing them out.

Although coarse and textured fibers are best carded on low-tpi carders, fine fibers can also be carded on equipment with less dense carding cloth.  One way to match up your cloth with your fibre is by paying attention to the micron counts (approximate) of your fleece. Let’s consider anything between 18-24 micron is ‘fine’, that 24-32 Micron fibers are ‘medium’ and 33+ micron fibers are ‘coarse: 

• Fine – tpi of 120< OR 90< for a blending board:  (Merino, Alpaca, or Cormo) To card smooth, lofty batts and rolags with little to no texture or blend fibers and colors together thoroughly. Fine fibers are best used on high-tpi carding equipment. To card more textured or coarser fiber on a tool with a high tpi measurement, it is important to pick open the fiber first. 

• Medium – tpi around 72: (BFL, Cheviot, Shetland) For most uses, including carding most wool.  It can accommodate a range of fiber diameters, create somewhat textured fiber preparations, and blend and smooth moderately fine batts.
• Coarse – tpi 50>: (Lincoln, English Leicester, Herdwick) To keep lots of texture in the fibers and blend loosely, this will give you a chunky, textured batt. If you are carding multiple kinds of fiber together, you will get bold variations on a single pass.

Follow the link for more information on tpi and blending: https://spinoffmagazine/carding-cloth-tpi-best-job/