What to do with Rusty Reeds

There's still some work to be done.  The new loom came with several old reeds, many of which look pretty rusty, so I'll want to clean those up before I try to use them. Or I may decide to just get some new ones, and not mess around with the rust and abrasion.  Some of the yarn for weaving is too expensive to have it shredded by a rusty reed. 

The one in front is in the best shape.  That's the one installed on the loom now.

For now, I have them contained in a cardboard construction tube in the corner.  It keeps them standing upright, and contains the rust, and keeps dust from settling on them.

Once I decided on a project, I had to do a little rehab on the 8-dent reed.

 

A little elbow grease and a wire brush went a long way towards cleaning up this reed. 

I did NOT use vinegar or naval jelly or any other additive. It wasn't bad enough to require that treatment.

 

This is the reed after I pulled off the ancient and dried out tape covering the rails.  

Look at those razor back ridges!

 

Here it is after some "light work" with the wire brush.

It also worked on the dried out adhesive.

 

Ready for re-taping. 

 

 

I used some new duct tape on the edges.  It was just a little wider than I needed, so I took a razor and trimmed off the excess.

 

Here is the re-furbished reed. 

 

There is still some rust on it, but I'm hoping the first project will floss the remaining rust out of the in-between spaces.

 

The next step is to set the reed up as a ruler.

I learned this trick from The Curmudgeon Weaves. 

Mark off:

* the center point (red)

* 1-inch points (white)

*5 inch marks (green)

 

Here's the center point.

Here is the newly re-furbished reed installed in the loom.

You can see the colored yarn marking the center, 1-inch, and 5-inch points all along the ruler.

 

This is very helpful when sleying the reed to stay on track ...

 

... which is what I did next.

That's a still from a Tom Kniesley video on the iPad. 

He is my guide-at-the-side when I need to warp my looms.