Vacuum Pack Fleece Storage

I'm slowly working my way through scouring four Romney fleeces (40 pounds of fleece in the grease) and separating it into locks according to fine-ness.

A fail-safe storage system is becoming pretty important to me. Moths, moisture, and also the space that gets eaten up storing fleece which is extremely fluffy, hence a space hog.

I'm experimenting with vacuum-packing. This first is with my Foodsaver. I have Space Bags at the ready in case this works well. Based on what I'm seeing, I think this might be a great solution, both to the potential of moths and also to moisture. Now add it taking up virtually no space.

Experiment: A little over 1/2 oz. of scoured fleece. Clean, but still uncombed, so you'll see twigs and other vegetable matter in it at this stage.



Here it is vacuum-sealed. This Foodsaver bag was 8" long by 11" wide. The fleece was stacked in the bag 3-4 locks deep on one side, not on the other. Pretty much as you see it above. The thickness of the vac-sealed bag was maxiumum 1/8". It was by no means packed to capacity but way thicker packing would only add a little in vac-packed bag thickness.


Here's after cutting open the bag, letting air in. Fleece untouched.


Here's the fleece as it came out of the bag, I haven't yet touched the locks.



Here's the locks, as I would lash them onto my combs. They look exactly the same as what I've been lashing onto my combs after scouring. And I didn't need to do anything different than I would have gathering them off the drying sheet.


My conclusion? It was only stored this way overnight but I see nothing whatsoever about time being a factor here. No moisture can get to it, there's minimal if any air in the bag. Moths wouldn't smell it.