I have always warped my looms back to front but recently warped my vertical countermarch loom front to back. When warping both front to back and back to front I always maintainthe cross until the very end of my warps. Recently, I saw a weaver warping front to back and as he pulled threads to slay the reed he removed the threads from the cross and the lease sticks and then discarded the lease sticks. He no longer had a cross after he slayed the reed. Does anyone know why the lease sticks need to remain after slaying the reed when warping front to back?

I always take out the lease sticks as soon as the reed is sleyed. You will be reducing the size of your shed if you leave them in.

You can always re-insert the lease sticks if you need to.