Abstract: A felting needle, with thousands of its counterparts, must be identically reproducible and uniform so that consistent duplication of the finished product of felted material is possible. The method of the present invention, as well as the apparatus of this invention for practicing the method, have the capability, for the first time, of exact duplication of a felting-needle barb, with rounded contours on all faces and edges which contact the fibers, and with uniform size, shape and finish, all produced by a method which is essentially a one-step process reducing the number of steps of the manufacturing procedure to a minimum. Thus the apparatus and process provide a barb-forming tool which has a recess or cavity formed therein which is the exact mirror image or mating counterpart of the shape or outline of the barb and barb-recess to be formed in the needle, and which, with such contour-controlling and material-constraining cavity, produces an exact cavity, throat and barb each time the tool strikes the needle.

Abstract: A felting needle, having a body with a blade, a tapered point at the outer end of the blade, the blade being non-circular in cross-section and the point being circular in cross-section near the tip, and at least one barb formed in the point area beyond the blade, said barb including a throat and a face, the throat disposed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the needle, and the face disposed at an obtuse angle to the longitudinal axis of the needle.