Notes on Looms and Weaving Tools

See Also

More Oriental Rug Notes by Barry O'Connell

More Notes on Looms

Notes on Spinning

Upright Loom Here we have an upright loom and a rug in process. This is picture of Mark Traxler's loom and a rug he wove in Minnesota. See also The Traxler Bagface - Warps and Cartoon

A Cartoon

Here we have the Traxler Zikr cartoon. Weavers will often use a cartoon to keep track of the design. Normally rugs have a repeat in the pattern. In Persian carpets the pattern typically repeats four times so that if you have a cartoon for 1/4 of the rug you have the whole design. As you can see in the picture of the upright loom above the Traxler Zikr does not have a repeat so the rug is drawn out.

Illustration 4. Workshop in Khotan. Unlike many rug factories, the management was pleased to show their plant. The working conditions are admirable, well lighted and very clean. All the looms were designed to give tremendous tension over a large surface area. The tools -- beaters, scissors, and knives -- appear to originate from one source, as there was no variation between workshops. East Turkestan Oriental Rug Weaving

Roller Beam Loom The Loom is a Roller Beam Loom which allows them to weaver longer rugs then other looms. Notice how the rug is rolled to the back of the loom as the work. These are used in Turkey, India, Iran, as well as in Khotan. This type of loom is frequently used for coarser large rugs. Tools On the bench you can see the saitchi/shears and the punja/beater-comb. She appears to be hold the knife in this picture but it is hard to see.

I spotted these tools in an ad from my old friend Tariq Mirza. It got me thinking that it was time to start assembling a page on the the looms and tools that are used in making rugs.

Mark Traxler was kind enough to take some picture of his weaving tools. The top five are various types of weavers combs. The bottom tool is a Tabrizi Knife (hook)

Here we have two very different combs. The top one is one that belonged to my brother Jim. I have loaned it to Mark to use until I take up rug weaving. It is a good general purpose comb. The lower comb is much larger and heavier. It would be too large for many rugs. A comb like this is used for sturdy rugs that are compacted such as a Bijar.

Tabrizi Knife or hook.

It is difficult to see in this photo but the point of this knife is bent back making a hook. Using the knife and hook together a weaver can tie 20 % more symmetrical knots per day than a weaver without this tool. My brother Jim used to make these by grinding down Solingen steel straight razors.

New grave stones together with the pictures of tribal victims of an accident at “Baloot-e- boland”, “Izeh”. Nomads Of Iran Here we have a tombstone of a weaver who died in an accident. She is remembered with the tools that were so important to her.

Panja One Village: the definitive cotton durry rug (www.onevillage.org/definitivedurry.htm)

Looms and Weaving Tools

For Further Reading:

Thanks and best wishes,

J. Barry O'Connell Jr.

Index to my Rug Notes

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