Hi there from Australia!

I am a new-to-weaving gal who's just jumped in the deep end, and bought herself a very large (to me), very old floor loom. Yay.
So now I have two projects: (1) Repair the loom and (2) Weave something.

But.

I've already hit a snag.
I'm trying to identify the kind of (monster) loom I have, so I can figure out tie ups etc. and fix 'er up. But it's not as clear cut as I thought it'd be. Plus previous owners have made a partial, and slightly random refurb. So it might or might not not be tied in original formation. It was advertised as a 4'6'' wide X 3'10'' deep X 5' high 8 shaft COUNTER BALANCE loom. Any advice to the contrary or information about my loom would be much appreciated.

It has 8 shafts (open frames with heddles) with texsolve heddles. 4 at the front have a wooden lath at the top and bottom hanging by heddles, the 4 at the rear have wooden laths at the top, and heavy metal 'laths', again suspended by heddles.

It seems to have 8 horizontal jacks at the top (4 each side at head height - you can't really see them in the photo), like I see sometimes on countermarch looms, but only one set of (4) lams down below.

A wooden boxlike arrangement front & centre (standing eye-height) with 4 holes in the front and rings attached to cords emerging from the box-holes. Haven't traced exactly where the cords go yet.
Moving down, 4 pulleys to the left and 4 pulleys to the right, perpendicular to the front of the loom (on the horizontal side-supports). But it doeosn't have a dowel and pulleys where I'd expect based on pictures I've seen (with horses above the head). like I've seen on most counterbalance looms.

There are two beams at the back with aprons and one at the front, and for good measure, what looks like a sectional beam at the back up high. beater is disconnected, but looks like it hangs down from above. There's what looks like a tension box near the sectional beam at the back, and a creel attached with spools also at the back. There are 8 treadles, but may be 2 more unnattached at the moment(?). A sticker on the front says "Cherubim by "Norman Hall".

If I've been unclear, please let me know - I'm new to all of this. I can take more pictures, or provide better descriptions.

Any observations? What manner of beast have I?

Cheers, Elizabeth

Comments

Mon, 05/07/2012 - 15:46

Joanne Hall

This loom will be a real challenge.  I have not seen anything like it.  I don't recognize the unusual parts.  Do you have a weaving friend who could help you?

Joanne

Mon, 05/07/2012 - 20:43

jenjscott

this in a wordpress news letter from a western aAustralian Guild

"Today a couple came into the Gallery who want to give away a 37 shaft Draw loom 6' high, 6' long ...(will fit though a normal doorway). It was built by Norman Hall the founder of Weavers & Spinners Guild of WA. "

 

Tue, 05/08/2012 - 13:01

metaphorical

Thank you everybody. No weaving buddies yet, but will try local guild and will email WA guild to see if they have any ideas. Yes! Challenging Fun! I'me really already enjoying my mysterious machine.
When I read about the WA Spinners & Weavers' drawloom, and googled pictures of drawlooms, they all seemed too complicated to be my Cherubim, but some of the pieces seem to fit.I might have a damask loom?

(1)The "wooden boxlike arrangement" has pull cord rings that are consistent with the idea of a drawloom. Each ring corresponds to a harness of heddles - ie. pulling no.8 ring raises no.8 harness via two sets of pulleys:

(2) The treadles and lams and jacks only operate the front four harnesses. The ringpulls operate the back four. They seem quite separate systems. (might be original tie up or not, not sure - there are grooves in the ring box that are unoccupied, so not completely original I suspect)

(3)  I've found another unnatached part that resembles parts of drawlooms I've seen:

Tue, 05/08/2012 - 13:06

metaphorical

I've drawn a schematic of how the front four harnesses are tied to the lams and jacks in case it provides us with any more clues.

 

I hope that makes sense to somebody.

Tue, 05/08/2012 - 15:18

endorph

absolutely nothing I can add to this conversation but I wanted to say WOW! to your drawings. very nice. Good luck with your research!
Wed, 05/09/2012 - 02:15

Joanne Hall

skeleton tie-up for a countermarch, where you use two feet to treadle one shed.  However, it would be very limiting.  A drawloom usually uses 4, 5 or 6 shafts for the ground weave and a damask tie-up has one up and one down, but not in this particular order and not using all 8 treadles.

Joanne

Fri, 05/11/2012 - 13:38

metaphorical

Thank you endorph for your kind comment. Am really enjoying the research. I've been digging through the Internet archive, looking for info on early industrial looms in case I spot something familiar. Not yet, though le clerc used to make a production jack loom called 'elite' that bears some similarity. thanks Joanne for the info re: tie up. It's all new to me. And fascinating too. I've cleaned up the not-too-severely rusty reed, using vinegar and elbow grease. It's still a tiny bit rough (pitted), but seems useable. The 'texsolv' heddles are not. They are string, and a bit twisty. Is that the usual thing for string heddles? Or is there some trick to keeping the heddle eyes open to make threading easier? I've strung on a narrow warp for testing purposes, and am awkwardly weaving a mohair scarf. I'm still curious about the rear 4 shafts, operated by pull rings.
Fri, 05/11/2012 - 13:50

Dawn McCarthy

Could it be similar to Collingwood's shaft switching system? - and yes, string heddles have a tendancy to twist sometimes.

Dawn

Fri, 05/11/2012 - 18:59

mrdubyah (not verified)

This sounds like a two harness drawloom.  One harness (the first four frames on jacks) does the groundcloth and the other (the second four frames on the rings) does the overlying pattern.  Are the eyes in the heddles on the jack harness longer than the eyes in the ring draw harness?  That would confirm it.  Read the section on drawlooms at: http://www.textileschool.com/School/Weaving/LoomTypes.aspx for more.

Sat, 05/12/2012 - 12:32

metaphorical

Thanks Dawn, I've downloaded Peter Collingwoods Rug Weaving book, and looking at the section on "the two-tie unit class", which I think may prove relevant. His shaft-switching system looks too complicated for my cherubim, but the concept certainly seems to apply, I think. (i'm so new to weaving though, I might be mistaken). References to two-tie (or 4tie) seem to all be more modern than my loom though. All a bit perplexing. Thanks too for advising me about my twisty heddles. I'm new enough to not be sure if it's the heddles or me being 'difficult'. Mrdubyah, you seem right on the money with the description of the two harness draw loom, except that the definition suggests 10 to 100 shafts to be employed in such a system. What would someone do with 'only' 4pattern shafts, I wonder? would rugs with borders be a likely scenario? Oh, and the heddles all have regular sized eyes, though I don't believe they are the original heddles, since the strings look comparatively new and are painted in colors around the eyes. Just like the treadles are tied up with bright red nylon cord, I think the heddles are a recent addition. On the looms historical front, I've emailed WA spinners and weavers, and they are forwarding my query on. Norman Hall founded the guild in about 1957, and my own research suggests he was an engineer whose wife, Muriel was a weaver. They made looms for war widows to help them to earn a living by weaving, though my loom doesn't look like the (counterbalance) 'war widow' looms I've seen in historical photos. The awkwardly woven mohair scarf is awkwardly lengthening.