08/09/2026
One piece of steel, folded back on itself. No pivot, no screw, nothing that can work loose. The bow at the top is the spring. A hand closes the blades and the steel opens them again, and that is the whole machine. Sharpened often enough and a pair like this outlasts the man holding them.
Woolmers ran ten thousand sheep. Mainly Merinos, pure and cross-bred, on land Thomas Archer took up in 1817. Every fleece came off with shears like these.
The work started at the river. The sheep were washed before shearing, and the men who did it were issued thin cotton slops for the job, because they spent the day wet. Washed sheep were penned outside to dry, then brought into the shed. The shearers worked with blades. The fleeces went to a long table to be cleaned and sorted, then up to the top floor, where a screw press worked by hand compacted them into bales. The bales left through the upper doors on a hoist, or slid down the stairs on a ramp built for the purpose. Then a wagon to Launceston. Then a ship to England.
