Hand cards are the traditional method of preparing fleece and fibers for spinning. The purpose of carding is to produce a batt or rolag of fluffy wool that makes spinning easier.
One card is held in the carder’s lap, then small pieces of wool are pinched off a washed fleece and placed on the card, pulling them out and down. After the lap card is loaded, the other card is repeatedly pulled across the wool until it is smooth and fluffy. When the fibers are appropriately fluffy, they are rolled off the card forming a rolag (a long roll of fiber). The fiber is now ready to spin.
This pair of cards is marked “Wool Warranted Beckwith Card Co., Stafford Springs, CT.” The Beckwith Card Company, operated by Charles F. Beckwith, was in business from 1888 to 1894. The company sold cotton cards in the American South and on the west coast of Africa, and wool cards in wool growing regions of the U.S. and Australia. Beckwith claimed that at the time there were only two companies making cards; the other was the L. S. Watson Manufacturing Company, Leicester, Massachusetts.