This beauty is living with me now…
I got this vintage drum carder from a woman in Healdsburg and it belonged to her mother. She had a “For Sale” sign with a picture at a fiber fair where I was vending, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention at that time. Days passed and I commented about the drum carder to DH and being the enabler that he is, asked me my why I don’t buy it. Believe me, he didn’t have to twist my arm to do it. I called the woman and she told me that I was the first person asking for information. I had to wait a few days before I could drive and see the drum carder, but she called me a few days before our meeting to ask if I still wanted it, because se was getting lots of calls requesting information. Finally I was able to drive to Healdsburg and when I first had it in front of my eyes, I fell immediately in love with it.
It shows signs that it has been well used, but it is in great shape, it works wonderfully and it has a beautiful old patina that only time can give. I’ve been doing a little bit of online research and I found from a couple of Blogs that it was made in Manitoba by a company that is no longer in existence. The company belonged to John Weselowski that eventually became the Made-Well Manufacturing Company. So, here you have it… This is a Made-Well Drum Carder.
Isn’t she a beauty? As you can guess I didn’t wait long before I tested it and I made a couple batts. I can only get 1.3 oz batts so far, but it does a great job at carding all sort of fibers so far.
I will keep looking for information, but nonetheless, I’m very happy with this little jewel.
Welcome to the dark side. I love my Duncan carder. Is it not super fun to create batts? I love doing themes with mine and giving them as gifts.
Hi Christian,
I love creating batts, specially with tools that have a history behind.
Oh, I’m kinda jealous! I’d love to have a drum carder of my own now while having pounds of Finn wool and others too. A nice one you have, congrats!
I love mine Anu. I like transforming those pounds of fleeces into lovely batts!
I wished myself luck and bought an ancient carder from Canada. The belt is an old leather…a little stretched….so my boyfriend found someone who copied it, and got it working. It’s just my favorite thing EVER! But your pics reminded me of mine. We will give them lots more hours
Thank you for sharing your history Michelle. I’m having a great time with mine!