Abstract: Textile fibers are crimped by rotating opposed crimping rolls about spaced rotary axes to force-feed the fibers through a nip defined by the rolls and into a stuffer box. A pair of cheek plates are pressed against the ends of the rolls such that a front face of each cheek plate retains the fibers against lateral displacement from the nip, and such that the center of each cheek plate is offset relative to the nip in a direction toward one of the rotary axes. Lubricant is pumped through a passage extending centrally through each cheek plate and onto the front face thereof.