CANFIELD — Saturday’s hot weather at the 177th annual Canfield Fair did not deter people from an interest in wool as artisans demonstrated how to shear it from sheep and use it to make clothing and other items.

Groups of viewers gathered to witness Travis Johnson, a shearer from Minerva, display his ability to dewool sheep quickly using a Heiniger shearing machine. The wool he gets from shearing usually heads to Chicago packed into semi trucks and weighs at least 20,000 pounds.

Dave Clouser, who oversees Johnson, used to run the show. Before Johnson took over the shearing demonstration, Clouser said he demonstrated shearing at the fair for 20 years.

“I’m retired now, so I hired Travis to do it,” Clouser, of Ashland, said. “He’s a second-generation shearer. He went to school, and his dad taught him. You actually are supposed to start in a two-day school, set up by an extension officer of Ohio.”

Clouser explained the process of shearing school.

“Over this way, it’s usually a Mercer County extension officer who sets that up. So you go down for two days, and they have some professionals there. And they have charts of how to hold a sheep, what to do with them, they show what the equipment is and tell you how to handle the equipment. You’ll shear maybe five to 10 sheep in the two-day period, and if you decide to continue on with it, that’s how you get started with a business.”

After winning a sheep-shearing contest at the Portage County Randolph Fair by setting a time of 1 minute and 40 seconds, Johnson was praised by Clouser. The former showman said even though Johnson is only in his 20s, “he’s really good.”

Getting into the business, according to Clouser, depends on referrals from farmers. Clouser also buys wool from Groenewold Fur and Wool in Chicago.

“They send out a price list, and I have to evaluate the wool as someone shears it,” Clouser said. “I ask them ‘what kind of sheep did you have?’ And they tell me what to pay for each grade of wool. And after I buy it, they take it into the warehouse where they can store probably 700,000 pounds. Then, they have a professional grader to send bales of wool to a lab for micron grading.”

A micron measures the diameter of wool fiber.

Wool can vary within a range of only one to two points. After the micron value is determined, the wool is sent to different crafting industries, dependent on its fineness.

“Most short wool doesn’t really have much value, so it’ll go to a carpet or insulation business,” Clouser, a 40-year shearer, said. “But the problem is that it doesn’t cost that much, so the farmer doesn’t really make much money from it. The wool used to be worth a lot more, and now our society has kind of went away from that, as we sort of live in a ‘throwaway’ society.”

At the fair, however, Janice Graham uses some of the wool sheared by Clouser and Johnson for her spinning.

“I started spinning in 2007,” Graham said. “I was watching ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ and I saw Caroline spinning. I thought, ‘That looks like fun,’ but real life interfered. A few years later, I saw that clip and I said ‘I’m gonna try that now.’ So I learned, and saw that same clip and realized she had no idea what she was doing. So, I kind of learned through a mistake.”

Graham, of Farrell, Pa., said she learned from Kay Thomas, who used to spin at the same fair booth.

“I would come in here and ask her all kinds of questions,” Graham said. “And she never acted like they were dumb questions or anything, she would just answer everything for me. She always had a crowd around her for almost 45 years and she was so special. She had been injured, so they called me. I did it that year, and she was still around to do it for a couple more years after that.”

By asking questions, watching others and reading a magazine, Graham said she learned more than imaginable, compared to when she first started. She said she is expecting to get a good amount of wool from Johnson and Clouser’s demonstration this year.

“I usually get a fleece from them every year, and I will process it from right off the fleece to the finished yarn,” Graham said. “It’s a very long process that could take sometimes a week, or more, depending on how dirty the wool is, or what the breed it. Some are easier to clean than others. Some take a really long time to do.”

She also spins synthetic materials and plant fibers.

The demonstration, which showed two sheeps sheared every half hour, “is amazing,” Graham said.

“They’ll just turn the sheep all over the place, and the sheep doesn’t care. As long as it knows that they know what they’re doing, and they won’t deliberately hurt them, they’re OK,” she said.

Today at the fair

Free daily happenings and attractions

All day — Old MacDonald’s (farm animals) in Barn 15

All day — Holborn Herb Growers Gardens at the Western Reserve Village

All day — School district booth displays at Educational Hall 1

All day — Inspire kids to join 4-H at Building 25

All day — Gardening and nature information at Building 25

5 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Milking parlor at the Cattle Arena Building 61

9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. — Antique equipment display in northeast corner of fair

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Spinning demonstrations in the north end

9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. — Operating model train display at Western Reserve Village

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. –Western Reserve Wood Carvers in Fine Arts Building 2

11 a.m to 2 p.m. — Trumbull Area Artists in the Fine Arts Gazebo

11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. — Kids activities with The Ohio State University Extension Office in Building 25

Today

8 a.m. — Rooster Run 5K / Kids fun run on the main concourse

8 a.m. — Catholic worship service on the concourse stage

10 a.m. — Praise and worship service at the grandstand

12 p.m. — Junior Saddle Horse Drill Team in the Junior Fair Saddle Horse Ring

12:30 p.m. — Amateur fiddlers contest in the East horse area

1 p.m. — Draft horse exhibitor’s show in the East ring

1 p.m. — Dress-A-Cow contest in the Cattle Arena Building 61

1:30 p.m. — Junior Fair cooking challenge on the Event Center stage

7:30 p.m. — Koe Wetzel concert at the grandstand

Judging schedule

10 a.m. — Junior Fair Goat Show in Event Center 36

10 a.m. — Junior Fair Pocket Pet Breed in Event Center Building 36

10 a.m. — Ponies: Leadline, Costume, Hitch classes in the South Ring

11 a.m. — Dog rally in Event Center Building 36

12:30 p.m. — Saddle Horse Championships in the Junior Fair Saddle Horse Ring

1 p.m. — Junior fair goat show: Nigerian Dwarfs / Dairy in Event Center 36

2 p.m. — Junior Fair Poultry Showmanship in Small Animal Barn 35

3 p.m. — Dog Showmanship in Event Center 36

3 p.m. — Adult Saddle Horse Contest classes in the East Ring

3:30 p.m. — Junior Fair Wee Ones Showmanship in Cattle Arena 61

4:30 p.m. — Junior Fair Showman of Showmen at Event Center Building 36

6 p.m. — Adult Saddle Horse Pleasure classes in the East Ring