Go figure. I did go to the archives of the Museum of London. There I saw ten 'thread pickers' or 'pin beaters'. Eight were double ended, which is usually associated with the warp weighted loom, and two were single ended, which has been cited as evidence for a two beamed loom, a tool which I am not yet convinced was used...but that is another entry.
The Museum of London also had a microscope I could use, which was really handy for looking at detail that was hinted at from visual examination.
The double ended pin beaters all had a rounded, flattened end, kind of like the butt end of a pair of tweezers, and under the microscope that end looked sharpened like a razor blade. But the sharpened section only covered about 1/4 inch along the very tip, which makes no sense for shoving between sections of warp threads to push weft threads up and between. That sort of tool use would be further up the shaft of the 'pin beater', I would think.
The two single ended pin beaters were even shorter and flatter than the ones I saw at York. And the tips were curved in a counter clockwise direction from the shaft of the beater. I have no idea what that would be for.
I also examined a roughout (a tool that was tossed aside before it was finished, for what ever reason) and discovered that the tool used for bone carving left skip marks along the length of the pin beater. These were not completely eliminated in the polishing process on other pin beaters that I examined. However, it would be possible to distinguish these skip marks from wear from rubbing against thread because the thread would leave wear marks around half to three quarters of the tool, and the skip marks only go for about a quarter of an inch or so. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I can't really post pictures from the finds without permission of the museums. I intend to run tests on my ww loom, with the warp thread covered in chalk like that found in plumb lines, to show where the wear marks would be. It seems the fastest way to demonstrate proof of concept, as I don't have the time to weave a big enough piece to create the wear marks.
Next Thursday, I'm meeting with PWR and a gentleman named Steven Ashbury to discuss this. He is apparently interested in combs. I'm not really looking forward to this meeting, because PWR identified some of the single ended pin beaters, and this would negate her work.
I also went to a re-enactor's market and found a bone carver. These people sold me a composite comb, and I found a single ended pin beater - which when I said 'I want that' the bone carver said, 'The Roman stylus?', which kind of confirms my thoughts on that subject.
I brought the comb home, and tried my wooden weaving sword, the bone comb, and a replica wooden comb I picked up in Leeds, and tried them out as weft beaters. I discovered that I like the bone comb best for a beater. The wooden sword has to shove through the stickiness of hand spun wool, where the comb slides right through it. And the bone is better than the wood because it has more weight and is slicker. It does make me wish I had picked up a bigger wooden comb with nice heft to it that I saw at the re-enactor's market. I would like to have tried that comb out as well.
If I can suggest a 'cheat' on the copyright on photographs problem?
ReplyDeleteTake your images, wash them through Photoshop to reduce the 'brightness' down to an almost invisible light grey. Then print them off, and take a pen and draw over the faded lines. Re-scan and you have a pretty accurate *hand drawn* image of the original photograph. I know of one book that used this method for all the illustrations. As you own hand drawings, now *you* hold the copyright.