Source: Radio New Zealand
Blade shearers at work preparing for the Golden Shears in Masterton. RNZ/Sally Round
At Rewa Rewa Station’s woolshed in Tīnui shearers are at work, but it’s not as noisy as usual.
Over the clatter of sheep hooves on the floorboards, you can make out the snip-snip-snip of blade shears instead of the much louder whirr of machine shearing tools.
Holding the shears – which look like giant scissors – are 15 blade shearers from several countries – here to learn a few tips from world champion blade shearer Allan Oldfield, in preparation for the Golden Shears competition in Masterton next week.
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Blade shearing is slower than machine shearing but leaves a thicker layer of wool on the sheep, beneficial if they’re caught in spring storms, Oldfield said.
“Blade shears leave about half an inch, so 10 or 12 millimetres of wool on the sheep, and that just gives them some protection against the elements, whereas even the cover combs on machines, which are meant to leave more wool on, they only leave five or six millimetres of wool.”
It’s done over a short season but is a skill in demand, with only about 20 commercial blade shearers in New Zealand, he said.
“It takes a lot of time to learn to blade shear well. For three months of work a year, a lot of people aren’t willing to put that effort in.”
A shearer works his way with his blades over a sheep, leaving a thicker layer of wool on the animal, beneficial before spring storms. RNZ/Sally Round
Blade shearing tutors Allan Oldfield and his father Phil at smoko in the woolshed. RNZ/Sally Round
Blade shearing is valued for cultural as well as practical reasons, according to the multi-national group in the woolshed.
Maureen Cadet from France has used her blades on flocks on remote islands where there is no electricity, and on milking sheep in the Pyrenees.
“It’s actually a pretty nice day, because everybody is gathering. We are, like, 20 or more shearers, blade shearing on that small flock for the day, and having a party at night.”
Wearing moccasins, tough jeans and a black singlet, she looks like shearers the world over, honing her blades on a sharpening tool in the corner of the woolshed.
Maureen Cadet holding a pair of blades. She has ten pairs at home in France. RNZ/Sally Round
In another part of the shed, shearers from The Netherlands and the Basque Country sort through a fleece, exchanging knowledge in a mixture of Spanish, Dutch and English.
Erik Bijlsma, from The Netherlands, likes the idea of practising an old craft.
“We’ve got those flocks that are grazing fields of heather, that are brought into the village, and then they make a sort of a festivity out of it to shear the sheep, and that’s all done in the traditional way.
“It’s much easier on the ears than machine shearing.”
Blade shearers from The Netherlands, France and the United States training at Rewa Rewa Station in Tīnui. RNZ/Sally Round
Being a social bunch, blade shearers enjoy the relative quiet of their craft, Oldfield’s father Phil said.
With half a century of shearing and wool handling under his belt, he was also in the woolshed imparting his knowledge.
Not having to shout above the machines, talk on the woolshed floor veers from politics to religion to relationships he said.
Also, according to Oldfield senior, blade shearing is way easier on the body.
“When you machine-shear a sheep, you pretty much turn it 360 degrees every time you shear them. And you’re shearing 200 or 300 or 400 a day.
“With the blade shearing, you walk around the sheep, and you might shear one or 200 sheep a day, so a lot less weight being carted around.”
Loren Opstedahl from South Dakota is in the United States’ two-person blade shearing team. He has competed at the Golden Shears twice before in machine-shearing.
His blades and his body were getting a good workout at the blade shearing school – good practice given he rarely took up the blades back home.
“If I practice, I’m shearing alongside my team. So they’re shearing with machines, and I’m over there shearing with the blades, slower, making less money, killing time.
“I just have to force myself to do the practice there, because it’s more nostalgic in the US.”
Allan Oldfield took his blade shearing school to Rewa Rewa Station in Wairarapa to give blade shearers some tips before competition at the Golden Shears. RNZ/Sally Round
New Zealand traditionally does well in the blade shearing, Allan Oldfield said, with South Africa the toughest ones to beat.
He was expecting good competition at the Golden Shears.
“The big thing for competition shearing, and that we’re working on here, is getting a really clean finish on the sheep.
“Blade shearing is probably 65 percent quality of the job, 35 percent speed.”
Learn more:
- Find out more about the Golden Shears here
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
