of Warp and Weft: Making my Warp Weighted Loom

I decided to make my loom from Ash. It's a commonly used type of wood in the Viking age, relatively easy to work with, and with the Emerald Ash Borer quickly approaching our area I didn't feel too bad about cutting down some young trees. So first I went out to the woods to collect trees. I needed two uprights about 8 ft tall and 4 in diameter, each one with a somewhat matching suitable fork for the cloth beam at the end, a beam about 6 ft long and 4 in diameter for the cloth beam (as straight as possible and of uniform thickness), and two beams about 6 ft long and 2 in diameter for the shed bar and the heddle bar (the latter also as straight as possible). Then I needed a few smaller branches with a fork to use as the heddle bar holders. I was very pleased to find everything I needed and even three additional nice and straight heddle bars and enough forks for the holders to weave twill.

Harvesting the wood.

I used a traditional draw knife to debark and shape the trees. I quickly fell in love with this period hand tool! No sawdust everywhere, the shavings are good fire starters for our wood stove and the blade follows the grain, giving a nice smooth surface without additional sanding.

Debarking and shaping the trees.

Next came shaping the notches in the cloth bar where it will rest on the uprights. A chisel and hammer did the job.

Shaping the notch in the cloth bar.

After that came shaping the heddle bar holders and drilling the holes for the holders. I have no spoon drills (yet), so this was the only time I used a modern tool during the making of the loom: a power drill.

Finally, came making the weights. I decided to use clay weights for now, since they it's relatively easy to make a fairly large number of approximately equal weight. I used store bought clay and air dried them and then used them without firing. I will likely fire them at one point, since they keep shedding a fine clay dust while using them, but at least I was ready to start using the loom.