Hi
I am restoring a vintage CB loom that has a wooden ratchet and paul advance system in the middle of a sectional warp beam. The old cherry ratchet and paul are very worn and need replacing. I would like to use some wood that is stronger than cherry (even though they lasted 66 yrs.) What wood should I use? Is there any type of laminated wood or plywood that would be stronger and wear better than oak or some other type of hardwood? Any comments appreciated.
GOD bless you!
Candace
Rock maple is much harder then cherry and is used to make a number of looms. Oak is not good at all for a ratchet as it will split along the grain.
Michael
Candace. Beech would be a great wood for a ratchet. Very hard and tight grained. Also it would be stronger if you sandwich laminate at least two pieces together with grains opposite to each other.....Steve.
Metal for both parts would be far sturdier.
And it is not Paul, Harry or Dick - it is a PAWL.
metal for both would be better, but getting someone to make me custom ones might be very expensive and diffucult to find...... like I said, the original cherry ones lasted almost 66 years.
A curiosity: home-made Swedish looms often had used circular saw-blades for ratchets. Some pictures of my cloth beam:
It doesn't quite show on this picture, but it is evident that the tools used for making the hole in the saw blade were not very sophisticated. (The loom must be well over 100 years by now)
I have a few old saw blades laying around.
Thanks,
Michael
Kerstin, That is a really kool idea. Recycling at it's best. Making my wife a small loom and now I know where I might be able to find some ratchets. Old, small saw blades. Thanks for the info...............Steve.
How about Hickory?
If you use hickory select wood from a fast grown tree. The reason is you want more closed grain than open (pores) to resist splitting. The early wood (growth in the spring flush) is much more open grained with large pores. This part of the ring is pretty consistant in width from ring to ring. Latewood from summer growth is much denser and pores become small and more dispursed. This is the part of the ring that varies from year to year and site the tree grows on.
Hard maple and beech are better because of the closed grain across the rings. They do have pores, but they are tiny as a pin prick. And if the wood is not dried good, like down to 12% the wheel could warp out of round. This is because of dimensional changes when drying. The shrinkage across the rings is half the rate as the shrinkage in circumference (tangent) of a log. So selecting quarter sawn has an added advantage as the width of the wheel is now across rings and thickness becomes tangent.
