Combing is a method for preparing carded

Carding

Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...

 fibre for spinning

Spinning (textiles)

Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...

. It separates out the short fibres by means of a rotating ring of steel pins. The fibres in the 'top' it produces, have been straightened and lie parallel to each other. When combing wool, the discarded short fibres are called noil

Noil

Noil is the short fiber left over from combing wool or spinning silk and used as a decorative additive for many spinning projects, like rovings and yarns. Silk noil is also called "raw silk", although that is a misnomer. As noil is a relatively short fiber, fabric made from noil is weaker and...

s, and are ground up into shoddy.

Description

The combs used have long metal teeth, and only barely resemble the comb

Comb

A comb is a toothed device used in hair care for straightening and cleaning hair or other fibres. Combs are among the oldest tools found by archaeologists...

 used on hair

Hair

Hair is a filamentous biomaterial, that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class....

. However, they are used in a similar fashion with one comb holding the fibre while the other is moved through, slowly transferring the fibre to the moving comb.

Combing the fibres removes the short fibres and arranges the fibre in a flat bundle, with all the fibres going the same direction. This preparation is commonly used to spin a worsted

Worsted

Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...

 yarn. Woollen yarns cannot be spun from fibre prepared with combs, instead the fibre must be carded

Carding

Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...

. Cotton is combed when it is to be used for quality fabric with high thread counts.

In general, combing is done with fibres that are longer, and carding

Carding

Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...

 with fibres of a shorter length. Worsted

Worsted

Worsted , is the name of a yarn, the cloth made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from the village of Worstead in the English county of Norfolk...

yarns pass first through a gilling machine instead of a carder, which starts the combing process, and then through a comber.

Machinery

In cotton manufacture, the Heilmann comber was superseded by the Naismith comber. In worsted a Noble comber was a common make.