The strand ends are sealed with careful dabs of Fray-Chek. These delightful antiques really work. They belong to a mechanically inclined friend named Dorothy, who runs them on steam power at shows but with a quieter electric motor at home. To watch them in action is sheer delight. The bobbins move in a complicated path around one another, much like a May pole dance, and the braid forms above the center.
Powerful gears draw the finished braid along, keeping everything under the proper tension.
The machine on the left makes a flat braid using 17 strands and presses it between heavy rollers. You can see the finished braid coming down the slide at the left. The machine on the right makes 16 strand round braids with or without a core. The finished braid travels around the wooden rollers, then toward the back. The information contained in this web site may be printed for your personal use.