Teasels for carding - a myth?

As you may soon realise, if you haven't already, I'm terribly flighty when it comes to crafts and projects. I've put down my needle and thread for the time being and dusted off my spindle and spinning wheel for the first time in ages. With that, I got to thinking about fibre preparation in the medieval period, and so to that oft-repeated 'fact' that "teasels were used for carding wool".

I've heard that fact repeated several times on the re-enactment circuit and it always struck me as being a stupid idea. I've tried half-heartedly to card wool fibre with teasels and the general outcome is that the ends of the teasel head break off in the wool, resulting in wool fibres that are still tangled but are even more filled with vegetable matter than they were to start with. So, how does one card with teasels?

The clue is in the name, as one can see in the OED:

Teasel: 1. A plant of the genus Dipsacus, comprising herbs with prickly leaves and flower-heads; esp. fullers' teasel n. D. fullonum, the heads of which have hooked prickles between the flowers, and are used for teasing cloth (see 2); and wild teasel n. D. sylvestris, held by some to be the original type, but having straight instead of hooked prickles.

There we can see that there is a species of teasel named the fuller's teasel, fullers being the tradespeople who fulled (essentially felted) the cloth after weaving, but also maybe did other treatments e.g. raising the nap. This, I think, is our next clue. To go back to the OED:

Card:
1. a. An implement for raising a nap on cloth, consisting of teasel-heads set in a frame (obs.).
    b. An iron instrument with teeth, or (later) a wire brush, used for the same purpose.
2. a. An instrument with iron teeth, used in pairs to part, comb out, and set in order the fibres of wool, hemp, etc., one of the cards being held in the hand, and the other fastened to a 'stock' or support.
    b. In later use a sort of wire brush for the same purpose, consisting of a strip of leather, vulcanised rubber, or similar material, into which short steel wires are inserted. These strips are fixed on a flat surface or on the cylinder of a carding-machine, and the wool is passed between two sets of them working with each other.

I think the confusion comes between definition 1, which can be teasel-based but is used for raising the nap of woven cloth, and definition 2, which is not teasel-based and is used for ordering the fibres of wool before spinning. (Note that this entry of the OED was first published in 1888; we now call these implements 'carders' not 'cards', but at the time this entry was written the former term referred to the user of the implements not the implements themselves.)

So, can we see any medieval evidence of this distinction? Possibly - contrast these two images.

Luttrell Psalter (British Library Add. MS 42130), c. 1320-40, Lincolnshire, England.
Spinning with a 'Great wheel' and carding. Some theorise the red lines over the circle are rolags.
Note how the carders look very much like modern ones, except possibly they are flat not curved.

Mendel Hausbuch, f. 6v, c. 1425: Peter Berber, Carder.
This clearly shows two teasel-based cards being used to raise the nap on woven cloth.

Here is a later example showing similar tools to those used by Peter Berber.

Carding wool using teasel frames.
Coloured print. George Walker, c. 1814, England.

Note how the cards used in the latter two images are very similar to this:

"Teasel cross"
National Trust Inventory Number 117317.14
On display at Lavenham, Suffolk.

The teasel cross, also known as a teasel hand, was superseded by the teasel gig. This consisted of a large cylindrical drum which was coated in teasel heads. A beautiful example is on display at the National Wool Museum, Dre-fach Felindre, Wales (see photos here). Information at the museum describes how the teasel gig's teasels were maintained and replaced by an specialist 'teasel man' who travelled from mill to mill.

The teasel gig itself was later superseded by a similar machine which used metal teeth instead of teasels. This  development would probably have had the medieval London Clothworker's Guild turning in their graves. Their ordinances often refer to malpractice whereby clothworkers resorted to using wire-toothed cards as a substitute for teasel cards, resulting in inferior cloth (see here).

Thus, in summary: teasels were used in 'cards' for 'carding' wool. However, these were cards for carding (i.e. raising the nap) of woven wool, not cards for carding (i.e. ordering the fibres of) wool fibre. There is evidence for the use of these in medieval Europe. However, note too that the teasel heads do not appear to have been used singly but were instead mounted on a small, hand-held wooden frame.

This is not to say that teasels were never used to order the fibres of wool prior to spinning, e.g. in prehistory. That is outside of the scope of my brief discussion. However, I think it is reasonable to claim they were not used in this way in 14th and 15th Century Europe.

Do you have any medieval evidence for the use of teasels for ordering fibres of wool prior to spinning? I would love to know.

(The Lutterell Psalter is from the British Library. The Mendel Hausbuch is from here. Teasel cross is from the National Trust Collections.)