The Incredible Shrinking Reed

When I bought the David floor loom, I ordered two extra reeds in addition to the one that came with it. This entire year I have, by coincidence, managed to only weave projects that used the original reed. So it was a huge surprise to learn when I opened up the reeds, that they are for a 36" loom and not my 90cm loom (about 35"). Panic time! I went back and checked my original invoice, and Susan had indeed ordered the correct size. But whoever packed the shipment, put in the wrong ones. What to do? Is this something I can fix? The reeds only need to be about 1/8" smaller to fit in the beater.

I emailed Susan, and she emailed Dave at Louet. Sure, he says. Reeds are easy to trim. I am, however, very intimidated by things I know nothing about. Especially when a boo-boo will cost me $120. Do I go to the trouble of finding a box and mailing them back to him to fix? Finding a box to fit two metal objects that measure 36" long x 5" high x 1" deep is going to be a big hassle. Not to mention the fact that the good old USPS will probably charge me a fortune to mail such a wierd sized package. So I finally summon up the courage to at least pop the caps off to see what I have to work with.







What a brilliantly simple design! The rail, which holds the metal dents, is merely two half-round pieces of wood. The dents are spaced by a tightly wrapped black tarry cord. The 12 dent reed had one wrap of cord between each wire; and the 8 dent reed had three wraps. I'm going to go out on a limb and surmise that the 10 dent reed has two wraps, but I'm not going to take it apart to verify that. All I had to do was unwind the cord far enough to remove two dents with a pair of needle nose pliers, then get out my trusty little hand saw and lightly trim the ends by 1/8". Pop the plastic end cap back on, and it's good as new!



So not only was I able to trim both reeds all by myself, it was very interesting to learn how they are constructed. I also have a new appreciation for why they are so expensive. I'm going to have to do some digging to find out if someone actually does it by hand, or if there's some kind of machine.