A few months back I received an email from the Townsend Guild saying they had been offered an old loom if anyone wanted it. The photo’s showed a jack loom with 6 shafts that folded to reduce front to back size. While definitely showing the signs of age it mostly looked ‘all there’. I took a quick trip up to Knoxville to pick it up.
It turned out to be a Sears Roebuck Hearthside Loom from the late 1940’s. They were advertised in the SR catalogue between 1946 and 1950. Designed by Nellie Sargent Johnson for Sears and build by the Pope Machine Company in Kankakee, Illinois. It is a 6 shaft jack loom. The loom has a 38″ weaving width and came with a 12 dent reed.
The loom was described by the donating family member as in working condition, but once home it was fairly evident that the loom had not been woven on for some time and was missing a couple of parts that would have prevented any weaving. At the time I didn’t have room to set it up properly so I just unpacked it, checked everything, then covered it with plastic sheeting and put it in a corner of the garage. Move forward a few months and I needed to move some sheet rock from on top of OSB sheets in the garage and given that I now had room in the studio I was able, with help from Anne, to move it into a more permanent place so I can devote some time to restoring it back to clean working order.
The loom has some quite innovative features but overall the quality is not quite at the standard of other loom manufacturers (although I guess there weren’t too many at the time). The first goal is to clean up all the woodwork and assess any damage. I won’t be aiming for ‘brand new’ but rather clean and functional with some display of age. I will also look at minor modifications to improve the working without changing the overall look and feel. I would like to be able to demonstrate with it at the next Fiber Arts Festival in April 2021 so will look into strengthening the base and adding something to enable rolling it.
The loom will be called ‘Senior’. I’ll update this blog with more as work now continues.
During a rainy day today I started removing parts of the loom and sanding off the old varnish and accumulated dirt and dust. The construction is fairly basic and while the design is innovative the construction had left some joins weaker than ideal and it looks like there have been ongoing repairs and moving/addition of screws. The metal hinge connections for the treadles were well rusted up, but I managed to remove them eventually.
The photos are (L-R). The back beam in received condition – typical of most of the loom. The breast beam and beater top after clean up. The treadles in place and off the loom ready for sanding. I have also cleaned up one heddle frame and numbered it so it will go back into the right slots, and the shuttle race which needed some stuck on marker tape removed.
The only serious damage to the loom is water related where I suspect the loom sat in water for a period resulting in a little of the end grain of lower parts softening. The earlier repairs involved adding more screws higher up. I’ll fix it by sandwiching the old wood with a surround of good wood as part of a box frame base to help with overall stability/strength. Most of the screws and bolts will be replaced as I reassemble the loom. I will have to design and make some replacement parts and try to improved the rudimentary (original) cloth and warp beam winding handles. Plenty of work for winter months.