Missus wanted about 20 hairpin lace looms to sell out of her shop. These are a simple tool consisting of two shafts held at a comfortable distance apart by two bits of wood at the ends. One end is fixed, and the other slides off, allowing a woven piece to come off when it is finished.
This finished loom is shown now to give you an idea what I am making.
The wood for this project comes from pieces of downfall that we picked up at the local salvage yard, that I think came from the waste at Trails West, who makes horse trailers here in town. It also comes from bamboo skewers from the Dollar Store. It’s very easy to size these waste bits down with a resaw on the bandsaw, then to cut to length on the same.
Next is to drill equally spaced holes at each end. Where every block of wood is cut to the same length, the ends suffice to measure from, so a block is set on the drill press to act as a stop. I cut an ‘L’ shape into a fence panel, and fastened it, so it would act as an end stop as well as a side stop. The sides of the blocks are not quite as consistent in forming the widths as they are hand planed. So the holes are not always centered as a result. However, they come out ‘good enough.’ And ‘good enough’ is good enough.
Half of the blocks are drilled to half depth, and the other half the holes are put all the way through. Then the dowels (skewers), cut to length, are glued into the half depth holes. I put the drill bit into a hand drill, then pushed into the holes drilled through, and wiggled it around to ream it out. This allows the block to slide down on the dowels easily. This block is there to keep the ends of the dowels spaced evenly under the pressure of the yarn.
As a final touch, I wiped every piece down with linseed oil. The finish pictured above is the final result. I may decide to put on another coat as all 23 did not take much to do the lot. I’ll look at them again in the morning to decide. Maybe even do another coat to try out the difference.
I am especially pleased with the toolmarks that result from planing, and the planed chamfers I put at the corners to soften them to the touch of the hand. I have not touched any part to sandpaper. So the result is a truly hand tooled finish. That is the aesthetic I am going for.