# Shearing Jacob Sheep?



## TexasJacobs (Apr 21, 2013)

We have been attempting to shear our small flock of Jacob sheep this past weekend and are having some difficulties.  I just bought a pair of Premier 4000s shears with the "spirit" and "spitfire" comb and cutters.  These shears are brand new.  When we began shearing Saturday, we noticed that we couldn't really do the shearing strokes like the booklet said to do.  It seemed like the shears would bog up.  But they were cutting enough that we were able to get the wool off so we were happy.  However, after doing only 3 sheep the shears quit cutting altogether.  We couldn't get the shears to finish shearing the sheep to save our lives!  One of our poor ewes is only half sheared!  
I oiled the shears every 3 minutes like the instructions said to do and I oiled the little hole on the blue cover every 9-10 minutes.  As far as the tension...not sure.  I followed the instructions for adjusting the tension and when the blades got too hot I turned the tension back 1/2 a turn.  When they stopped cutting the wool I tried tightening the tension again but it didn't help at all.  I have watched a YouTube video of someone shearing a sheep with our same shears and their shears clipped through the wool much better than ours.  Like they were able to do the long shearing strokes on their sheep and the shears didn't bog up or quit cutting.  So I am wondering if we are doing something wrong?  I thought I read that Jacob wool is harder to shear than other sheep wool.  Is this true?  If it is do I need a special set of combs and cutters for them?  Does it sound like the tension on the shears is off?  Are the blades dull and need re-sharpening?  I would greatly appreciate any help or advice anyone could give!  
I can also post pictures of the sheep or shears if it would help.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 21, 2013)

Call Premier, they are awesome about giving customer support. They should be able to give you some tips.


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## Roving Jacobs (Apr 21, 2013)

Definitely call premier and have them help you, it sounds like a tension problem. The premier clippers have a very touchy tension and it takes a while to get used to it.

That said my jacobs are harder to shear than my finewools. Their wool is super greasy and just gums up the combs and cutters like nothing else. I've found cleaning the comb/cutter off in HOT water between sheep really helps. I can only do 2-3 jacob sheep before needing to switch out to a clean comb/cutter combo, especially if they are dirty/dusty in addition to the normal greasiness.


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## TexasJacobs (Apr 21, 2013)

Okay I am going to call Premier tomorrow.  I used Oster blade wash to clean the blades between each sheep--I didn't know you could use water.  Would using blade wash have hurt the shears?  Next time I think we will use the hot water because the blade wash didn't really clean the blades that well.  Thank you guys for your help!  We usually hire someone to shear the sheep but our flock is growing and we started thinking it would be better if we could learn to shear them ourselves.  So this is our first time actually working with the shears and blades instead of just holding the sheep.


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