Hi all-I'm getting a Mighty Wolf for Christmas but am uncertain as to whether to get the flat steel heddles or inserted eye heddles. I'll be weaving fabric, scarves, hand towels, etc. I'll be using handspun yarn in addition to commercial yarn, with the occasional boucle or slubby yarn. What do you think? Thanks for your input!
I switched to the inserted eye heddles when I bought my Baby Wolf and I am glad I did. They are much easier to thread and cut way down on threading errors. In addition, you will never have to worry about using a unique yarn, they all fit in the inserted eye heddles.
Happy weaving,
Claudia
I would get inserted eye or even more preferable are the texsolve. Lighter, quieter and easier to get slub/knots through. congrats on the loom, they are very very nice looms.
As far as I'm concerned the inserted eye is the best. I love that the eye provides a smooth surface for the yarn to run through.
Regards, Charles
Thank you all so much for your input. I'll go ahead and get the inserted eye heddles :)
Here's one more vote in favor of inserted eye! There are a number of negatives to consider, but I personally don't think they're important. I use inserted eye on one loom, flat steel on another.
1. Theoretically, you can't get as many heddles per linear inch with inserted eye as you can with flat steel. Measure the number of heddles per inch you can cram together then multiply by the number of harnesses, and that's your maximum ends per inch. Since it ends up being upwards of 40 epi for 4 harnesses for all options, do you really care how much more?
2. I've never found inserted eye repair heddles, and the eyes on other heddle types may be longer, making for a slight uneveness in the shed where the repair heddle is. I've never had a problem with this, but others might.
I've heard about the excellence of Texsolve heddles, but have also heard that when used on Jack looms like the Wolf where gravity returns the harness to the resting position, they may cause harnesses to stick in the up position because they are too light. People fix this with bungee cords or weights, but why create problems? On the other hand, they might really save the legs on a big countermarche 16 h rug loom . . .
