Postrzygalnia

Formerly, cloth was made by a clothmaker, who weaved them from wool purchased on the market. As wool has always been popular and desirable, they tried to buy it directly in the countryside and ensure a monopoly on this raw material. Agents began to drive around the area and tried to scavenge the clothiers. The guilds, however, defended themselves against them by forbidding the masters to buy wool from them. The fabric has undergone technical inspection to see if it is woven too rarely or does not contain any errors. When the inspection was successful, the material was referred to the full sheet. Folusznik poured hot water over the square-folded material and placed it under large wooden hammers, which, moved by the force of the water, hammered it. During the filling, the material was able to climb by a third. Now only the materials had to be dyed, combed, finished by cutting, that is, trimming with huge scissors. Postrzygacze usually worked in the town hall, and in Kraków in shearing rooms specially built by King Casimir the Great. They were placed in two-story buildings adjacent to the Cloth Hall. It was also possible to measure cloth in the shearing rooms in Krakow, as this is where the city measure was. The existence of as many as two shearing machines testified to the considerable wealth and affluence of the city.