Justin talks about the essential shearing gear to have to start shearing sheep.

The portable battery powered electric clipper has enabled farmers and shearers to carry out essential animal husbandry work in remote areas away from mains power.

Maintaining your electric sheep shearing clipper is vital to ensure it runs smoothly and to prevent it from running hot. In this blog, Justin goes over how to maintain a clipper the right way.

A battery-powered sheep shearing clipper is a handheld device that sheep shearers use to remove the wool from a sheep. The clipper derives it’s power from a lithium-powered battery source that is attached to the backend of the clipper itself or has a cord that runs from a lithium battery to the clipper. The clipper has no need for mains power except to charge the battery.

A sheep shearing mechanical handpiece is a handheld device used by a shearer which enables a cutter blade to move in a back and forth motion across a comb blade to remove the wool from a sheep. The power which runs the handpiece comes from an overhead mains powered shearing plant which spins an internal drive, which attaches to the back of the handpiece, which moves the cutter across the comb, giving you a cutting edge to remove wool.

A sheep shearing electric handpiece is a handheld device that moves a cutter across a comb, which removes the wool on a sheep when you push the clipper through the wool. The clipper has an electric motor within the casing of the clipper which powers the movement of the comb and cutter blades. The electric clipper has a direct electric cable attached to the back of the clipper which powers the motor.

A farmer can learn to shear their own sheep. The farmer needs to be trained by an experienced sheep shearer to be able to successfully shear sheep. Although it looks easy, sheep shearing is a job that needs to be taught. You need your own sheep shearing equipment to shear them successfully. This includes an electric sheep clipper or a mechanical handpiece and comb and cutter blades.

If you don’t shear your sheep the wool on the sheep will continually grow at about 100mm per year and adding 5kg of weight per year depending on the breed. This makes it hard for the sheep to walk to food and water. The sheep will be at higher risk of getting flystrike from urine staine. The sheep has a higher risk of dying if left unshorn.

You sharpen sheep shearing blades on a shearing grinder by attaching a shearing blade to a pendulum and pressing the pendulum to a grinding disk and swiping left and right. You must adjust your shearing pendulum to the correct position on your grinding disc to give the combs and cutters a proper hollow grind. You must also make sure there are no dull spots on any of your blades after grinding by making the surface of the blades completely shiny after grinding your gear.

I find many raw learner shearers who own their own sheep are lacking in confidence as they haven’t been shown How to Shear at all. Or if they have, they have lost all confidence, as their experience of shearing, may not have been very memorable. Encountering many problems, such as:

An electric shearing clipper derives its direct power from a small electric motor either encased in the clipper or at the back of the clipper. An electric clipper can be run from a lithium battery or mains power direct to the back of the clipper. A mechanical handpiece derives it’s power from an overhead mains powered motor which drives a direct shaft to the back end of the handpiece. The mechanical handpiece has no motor attached to the handpiece itself.

Choosing the right comb blade for the type of sheep you run