Simple loom

[SekoETC]

Now since iron is so hard to come by sometimes, we should have an easier way of making cloth. So... let's just add a frame loom. It can be put together with wooden pegs so no nails needed. Just wood, hammer and a knife. In the page I'm linking there's a small one but I don't see why it couldn't be a bigger one, we have one in the storage that is about a metre high but it's more like for making carpets. Just no one uses it because setting the warp strings is so time-consuming.

http://www.hallnet.com/weave.html

Now with this one we could make only crude sort of cloth, using hemp yarn, and maybe also wool cloth I suggested before (I guess it was in the new clothing thread). And maybe there could also be carpets made with string instead of yarn.

(This was discussed at the irc channel but since nothing resulted from that this far then gotta write a suggestion.)

[Pirog]

If implemented I think the work should be much slower than for the iron ones...

[Molested.Peach. (cky)]

Isn’t everything slow enough?

[The Industriallist]

Isn’t everything slow enough?

Not fundamentally, no. Relative merits are more important than your impatience. Besides...you should like this. Getting iron, making a full loom, and making cloth would surely take a lot longer than making the cloth on a primitive loom, unless you were making a lot.

[SekoETC]

Well of course it would be slower! I can't remember how much the iron one makes but max half of that a day. Maybe even less. I think the cloth/yarn/leather making things at the moment are too fast actually.

[Pirog]

I would like to see different qualities of cloth. Then it you could have primitive looms with good production rates, but the quality wouldn't be the same.

But I agree that you should be able to make cloth without iron in some way.

[Antichrist_Online]

I think its a good idea, but should still need iron, maybe only 20g and half the work rate, meaning its cheaper for small companies to build the one loom, but for larger needs the other loom is better.

[The Industriallist]

That would kind of defeat the point, which was allowing fabric without iron technology...

[Antichrist_Online]

I know, but nearly all looms have an iron beater, pretty hard to make it from anything else. Also how about an iron power loom, it could be human powered for now, producing more, but when generators/water wheels come in it could run automatically at a fixed rate.

[SekoETC]

The loom described here makes slack-structured fabric so I don't think they need a beater at all. (It's the comb-like part, right?) Slack fabric is more likely to ravel out but can be avoided by sewing the pieces more carefully. (Maybe reflects into a longer time of sewing.) But that wouldn't prevent it from being used.

The beater could be made of wood as well but the problem is then a saw would be needed, and that requires steel which is even more complex. Or I guess if there was a strong type of thick yarn you could make a comb out of that, setting the threads on a wooden frame that has chips carved to the long beams. While setting the warp you'd be required to pass it through dozens of narrow gaps (provided that the yarn is pulled tight) but when this is done you could use this for tightening the fabric. Since there would be no swords the side of the fabric would be small compared to industrial loom since you'd have to yank the beater with your both hands and keep it balanced.

Ok maybe we need to produce a model in real life to see if it's possible to make a loom that makes tight-structured cloth without iron parts... This got me interested. If I tried I would use a steel knife since I still don't realize how those bone knives are sharpened without tools, but the machine itself would be metal-free.

[Agar]

Been researching for two days to do this.

http://www.marlamallett.com/loom.htm

A frame loom could be made from wood, build with wooden pegs, and beaten with a wooden or bone beater. The whole project could be spilt into frame, shed stick, heddle and weaving projects could require a wooden beater, which will drive harry potter fans nuts.

The frames require no iron or steel, and can be small lap looms or large affairs that are mounted in place. Maybe two sizes could be made.