Jane shows her favorite Schacht open-bottom shuttle in Season 1. What size is she using in her videos - 11" or 9"?
Thank you!
The 11” ones, Susan.
Shuttles
General topics on handweaving
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Thank you, Sandra. One more question. Does she use the slim line or regular 11". I know it will all come down to personal preference and I like to know the base line to start out from the teacher.
Jane uses the regular one. I have both - I use the regular ones on my Louet David and the slim ones on my old Woolhouse table loom, which has shallow shed.
Hi Sandra - I have been using the slim 11” shuttle on my Jane loom but am wondering if you think it would be worth getting the standard 11” now that I am about to take the plunge and assemble my new David III and start the next step in my weaving adventures! I presume the main advantage is extra weight so that it travels through the shed with minimum effort? The bobbins are the same is that right? Thanks.
Katherine, you had me checking! I have both sets and I use the slim on my Woolhouse and thought I always used the larger set on my David. I’ve just realized that I’d used the slim ones on my tea towel warp and didn’t even notice. I weighed one of each set and found there is only 1 oz difference between each shuttle. Why don’t you just see how your slims work for you and wait until you know before buying another set.
That sounds like very good advice to me! Thanks for the quick reply. I’ll see how
I get on…and now that I am ‘saving’ money by not buying another shuttle, I can buy more yarn! Hurray!
🤣
Thank you! Good information to have.
….just adding follow on to reply above to get this thread up to recent posts on forum! Entering it as a ‘reply’ doesn’t seem to have that effect.
Diane E
The shuttle size question is a. Interesting one. My weaving supplier advised me to get a 9” boat shuttle for my20” wide Louet Erica. It is not easy because there is no race in the Erica but with practice it is ok-ish. 🤪. I am still wondering whether an 11” would be better, in that the length might prevent it falling between the threads so easily? Or would the extra weight be an hindrance? I will see if I can borrow a larger shuttle to try out but in the meantime does anyone have experience of this? Despite the problems, I have to admit that the boat shuttle is still quicker than a stick shuttle.
My favorite shuttles for my David III are the Louet Flying Dutchman. Favorite for my Woolhouse Tools 23" wide table loom are the 11" slim Schacht (I added a shuttle race to this loom).
My favorite shuttles for my 16" Louet Jane loom (no shuttle race) are 15" Glimakra shuttles. I can just hand them back and forth...no need to throw. I also use these on my 16" Ashford Rigid Heddle loom.
Dear Cheryl, thank you 🙏 so much for your post; this is extremely helpful. 😊 I’ve just been offered some larger boat shuttles (unknown size) by an ex-weaver, so it will be good to see how they work out. With my current nine inch shuttles the “throwing” action often catches the odd thread here and there, unbeknownst to me, and they show up only in the end product . Ggrrr 😡 Being able to hand the shuttle across and know that threads are not being caught up will be good. I will also investigate some bigger shuttles next month when I go to Wonderwool (UK).
Cheryl Schwarz
Raven
A consideration with shuttle choice for me is also how much noise the bobbin makes when the shuttle is being thrown….I haven’t tried that many shuttles, but for me the Schacht boat shuttle is much quieter than the Ashford, which makes a sort of jingling, rattling sound every time it is thrown. I would be interested to hear the views of others on this aspect. In fact, I think I may start a separate thread looking for ideas on how to minimise noise generally when weaving!
Shuttles that use quills, like my Glimakras are the most quiet in my experience. Plastic bobbins are just more rattling when throwing back and forth.
I dislike Ashford shuttles because of their design.
Cheryl Schwarz