Originally Posted By: canvasback
Just a minor question I have been curious about. Why is "carding" called carding?



It appears that the actual word "carding" comes from the textile industry in eary 1700's England. Carding was the term used to explain "separating various fibers" where wire brushes were used for this purpose.

As barrel browning became the norm during the same time frame, a very stiff brush was used to remove the brown oxides from freshly brown rusted barrels after they had sat out for 24 hours to rust and the word "carding" carried over to identify the use of the "stiff hard brush".

Soon it was learned that if they "boiled" the barrels with this iron oxide the barrels would turn black and blacking began.

Hope this helps.





Doug