From: jill@super.org (Amelia J. Scott-Piner)
Subject: Re: Loom Advice wanted
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 23:18:33 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.183258.19715@microsoft.com> linnco@microsoft.com
(Linn Compton) writes:
>I inherited a two-harness loom made by the Reed Loom
>Company (which went out of business in the 20's, I
>This is a large, floor-standing loom, about 5 feet square.
>
>The loom has been sitting in my aunt's bedroom
>unused for years. Do I need to do any kind of restoration
>on it before it is usable? For example, do I need to oil
>the wood? Polish up the (are they called heddles?) metal
>wires?
>
>Are looms specific to a certain kind of weaving? What I'm
>wondering is: if this loom is a rag rug loom, does that
>mean that I can only weave the more coarse kinds of things
>on it? Or does it just depend strictly on the type of
>material you use on it? Any and all advice on getting
>started is gratefully appreciated.
>
>
>Linn Compton    Microsoft

        The first thing you'd probably want to do is to find a weaving
shop that offers weaving lessons.  I learned to weave 3 years ago by  
finding a shop that offered weaving in the telephone book under 
"Weaving Instruction".  I'm lucky to have a shop that offers lessons 
in knitting, weaving, tatting, beading, dyeing, and silk painting as 
as well as a shop owner who offers special services such as setting 
up looms fornovice weavers and older weavers who no longer can thread
their looms but still love toweave, help in cleaning & restoring &  
appraising of looms, as well as special tutoring sessions in weaving, 
knitting, etc.  I know that not everyone can find a shop that's this
helpful in their area, so try asking if any of your local specialty yarn
shops know of any weavers or weavers' guilds in the local area.  Some 
colleges & universities offer courses in weaving. 
        If you can't find anyone nearby, get a copy of Deborah Chandler's
_Learning to Weave_.  It's a spiral-bound softcover book which covers  
all the basics of learning to weave.  I've been weaving for 3 years and
still find it occasionally useful.  It's published by Interweave Press,
Inc. which also publishes other books and great magazines such as
_Handwoven_ and _Spin-Off_.  Another idea on classes might be to look in
the back of an issue of Handwoven for weaving schools.  The  address for
Interweave Press is
        Interweave Press, Inc.
        201 East Fourth Street
        Loveland, Colorado  80537
        Since your loom has 2-harnesses, you will be able to do plain
weave fabrics on it mostly.  You aren't limited to big, coarse yarns  
and fabrics, when the loom is cleaned up you could even weave silk or 
mohair on it.  There are other weave structures than plain weave that
can be done on a 2-harness loom, but the tricks involved in creating 
these will be a little advanced for you for a while.  
        You will need to clean up the loom a bit before you weave on it
if it has been idle for for several years.  This is going to be tricky
if you don't know someone who can help you with knowledge of what goes  
where, what it does, and what it should look like.  Basically, the 
metal parts should be rust free (rust causes rough surfaces which
could snag your yarn) and the wooden pieces should be solid with no 
cracks.  The first thing I'd do is wipe the dust off of it (you've 
probably already done this).  Try stepping down on the treadles --
those pedal things.  Does each harness move smoothly?  If not, try
cleaning the lift mechanism.  Usually this is just a spool pulley 
sort-of item on some types of looms.  There are various ways that looms
separate the threads to form a "shed" (this is the space created between
upper & lower warp threads when harnesses are raised and/or lowered.  
You pass your weft [horizontal threads] between this space.).  Study
your loom for a minute while raising and lowering harnesses by pressing
down on pedals.  If it's moving  smoothly, you're OK so far, if not, try
and find the problem spot. 
        Since it hasn't been used for years, your heddles are probably
rusty.  Those are the little metal things hanging on the harnesses.
There should be a way to slide them off of the harness.  If you take
them off, get a pair of shoelaces and slowly slide the top harness
slot-things of the heddles onto the shoelace as you slide the heddles 
off.  Thread the bottom slots through the other shoelace.  That way the
heddles don't spill off willy-nilly and become an impossible mess to
sort.  Heddles do have a proper facing side so that when you face the
loom from whatever direction that you thread (front or back threading,
you'll learn this later) you should be able to just grab the heddle and
have the eye open to you.  There are two ways to deal with rusty
heddles:  1) clean them  or 2)buy new ones.  Cleaning them is a nasty
business using naval (or is it Admiral's) jelly which has the toxicity
of drain cleaner like most solvents and a hard-bristle brush.  Buying
them could be a tricky business since Reed Loom Co. is now out of
business.  That doesn't mean that it will be impossible, but finding
replacement pieces will be difficult.  There are several loom companies
that make heddles.  Heddles are ordered by size, measure them from top
to bottom.  They usually cost $10 / 100, and you'll probably only need
300 to start.  You can always add more later. 
        Another item which is important to clean are your reeds.  Your 
reeds are the long metal comb-like things that fit in moving piece in 
the front called a beater.  The reeds are made of metal, usually steel,
sometimes stainless steel.  Stainless steel is nice because they don't 
really rust.  Yours are probably plain steel and I'd imagine they are
very rusty.  The reed looks like this:

        ---------------------------------------------------
         | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
         | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
        ---------------------------------------------------
Once again, You'll have to clean this or get new ones.  Reeds come in 
various sizes.  The most common size seems to be 12 dents (the spaces
between the metal teeth) per inch.  You change size according to how 
far apart you want your warp threads to be for a particular project and
yarn.  I own reeds in 5,8, 10, 12, and 15 dents/inch sizes.  Reeds are
kind-of expensive to start out.  Once you buy them you have them
forever, so the expense isn't going to be felt again.  I buy reeds as 
I need them for various projects.  Reed length is dependent on your
loom size.  How wide is your loom?  Typical lengths are 36", 48", 54"
60" and 100".  (Oops, I meant width of loom instead of length..) The 
width of the loom is going to determine the widest piece of fabric that
you can weave on it.  For a stainless steel reed I usually pay about 
$1.50/inch.  A 37" reed runs about $55 (I buy my reeds an inch or two 
wider than the interior of the harnesses.  It allows me an extra inch of
width that I can use for my cloth take-up on the loom.)  Cleaning a
rusty reed is probably justified due to the expense of the item.  
        About oiling the wood, it should be OK with just a dusting.  I
never use commercial polishes on any of my furniture because they don't
allow the wood to breathe, so it promotes warping.  You could wipe it
down with an oil like the one that came with my Harrisville warping
board.  I can't remember what it was exactly, teak I think.
        There are probably cords that tie the little skinny rods to the
big thick beams in the front and back.  They may be rotten, so you may
have to replace them with new ones.  Remember that these are the rods
that you tie your warp threads onto, so they'll be under a lot of
pressure eventually.  The rod cords should also be holding the rods
parallel to the beams.  It's important to have these cords tied on
evenly so that each rod is dead-on parallel.  Eventually you'll see why
when you start weaving.  
        This is just a starting point.  My best suggestion is to look
for some local help to clean the loom up and get you started in weaving.
Good luck with your newest hobby!  I wish you many years of happy
weaving.

                        jill@super.org
                        Jill Scott-Piner
                        Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles