Heddle Up! Road Trip!

Adding/removing heddles is easiest with the harness on a table.

Adding, removing and moving heddles is perhaps my least favorite part of setting up a loom. Recently I got a call from one of my customers who was having trouble with her harnesses not raising evenly - and after much detective work it turns out that she had too many heddles on one side of the harnesses.

Long story made very short here ......heddles should be evenly divided (right/left) and you should not have so many extras that they impair a straight path of your warp from front to back. One of the "golden rules" that I tell beginning weavers - is that your warp wants to go from the back of the loom to the front in as straight a course as possible. Too many heddles (or too many on one side) will impede this straight line front to back.

Ok - now you know that adding and subtracting heddles is part of your routine loom program. This past week I had to add heddles to two new harnesses that I added to my 40" loom.

The first step is to remove the harness from the loom by simply unhooking the S hooks and chains. Lay the harness flat on large table. Then unclip the heddle bar from the center and sides of the harness and slide the heddle bar to one side 

Match up the heddle bar on the harness and the transfer bar with the new heddles. Now you can easily slide the heddles on to the heddle bar. Be sure to clip everything back up when you're done.

To remove heddles - follow the same set up steps by placing the harness on a table. And instead of sliding new heddles on to the harness - slid them off - on to a heddle transfer bar.

In June I wrote another blog post about heddles and heddle bars Please explore that entry for more heddle information.


Use a heddle transfer bar to help slide the heddles on to the harness heddle bar.

On another note - and a pretty darn exciting one -- I will be an artist in residence at the Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, GA. I will be there for two weeks, plus the long scenic drive from Maine to Georgia. During my time there I will be focusing on embroidering on my hand-woven linens as well as drawing and exploring the environs.

Also please check out my new Face Book public page - just for my art!

10 yds of line to weave before I go!

The Hambidge Center

The right and left of heddle bars

Heddle bars hold the heddles inside the harnesses.

 Heddle bars are those slim bars of steel that hold the heddles inside your harnesses. They run horizontally from left to right across the harnesses allowing the heddles to slide from one edge of the harness frame to the other.

Here is everything you might want to know about heddle bars ~ 

• Cleaning heddle bars - use a light weight steel wool to clean off any rust. Lightly spray with Silicon spray to help prevent further rust and to help the heddles glide from right to left.

• Getting heddles to slide easily - clean the heddles bars as described above. I find that the inserted eye heddles will glide more easily while the flat steel ones seem to bind up more frequently.

• Replacing heddle bars - you can purchase new heddle bars if yours are too rusty and cannot be cleaned easily. They are not too expensive - ie. 24" bar is $4. Give me a call to order these.

Heddle bar ends (right/left) - at each end of your heddle bar is a small hole. There should be some kind of fastener or clip that prevents the heddle bar from slipping out of the harness....and your heddles dropping off! Over the years Macomber has tried a variety of ways to prevent the heddle bar from slipping off.  Here are the 3 variations that I know -

1. The clip - only on one edge, breaks over time.

the clip, the rubber stopper and the office brad fastener.

2. Rubber stopper - falls out, gets lost.

Brad office fastener- current option.

Heddle bar clips hold the bar inside the harness.

• Heddle bar clips - inside the frame - these clips hold the heddle bars in a horizontal position and attach them to the harness across the width.On rare occasion these will break - and can be replaced. Call me to find out more about this repair.
• Re/moving heddles - Sometimes it is necessary to remove heddles from the harness frame. Reasons to do this include - too many heddles for the project and the unused ones will chafe the warp and impede it from going on a straight path from front to back of the loom. Or perhaps you need to move some from one harness to another, or from one loom to another, etc. To remove the heddles - lay the harness flat on a table and undo the fastener or clip and slide the heddle bar out enough so that you can easily slide off the heddles. I HIGHLY recommend that you slide the heddles on to a heavy cord or even better a slim heddle transfer bar (a thin strip of flexible stainless steel). There is nothing more frustrating than a pile of chaotic heddles that need to be threaded back on to the heddle bar. (Since writing this post I have learned that it is a challenge to find heddle transfer bars for sale. Macomber no longer sells them. If anyone finds a source - PLEASE let me know!)
  

  

  Heddle transfer bar.

• I hope that this post gives you some new information tips on heddle bars! Read more about heddles bars in a past blog post  - "Little Jobs"