Weaving Shuttles and their Spindles

 

My basket of weaving shuttles -- including the brand new apple wood one in the middle. 

Pia Thadani commented on "Hand Made Boat Shuttles for Weaving"

Oct 26, 2021

I have recently come by some handmade shuttles but they don't have spindles in them - what do you use for a spindle and how do you attach it? Any ideas? They have little holes in them where a spindle wood go, just no spindle.

 

Dear Pia--

This is a great question!  In this post, I will show the spindles and methods for attaching them from my collection of weaving shuttles.  There are many ways to attach a spindle to a weaving shuttle.

This is one of my antique shuttles.  

It has a heavy gauge wire for the spindle that slips into the slots built into the spool space.  

Very simple solution.

  

 The brand new apple wood shuttle has a very simple spindle. Just a piece of wire, bent on one end.

The straight end slips into the whole on the right side, 

while the bent end slides into the slot on the left side, so that the spindle sits parallel to the shuttle body.

It's an ingeniously simple dot-and-slot solution:

 

Here's another one that uses just a straight piece of sturdy wire for the spindle:

 

 The ends of the wire sit in this little metal receptical, worked into the wood.  It has a little bit of spring to it, making it easy to get the wire in and out, but also holding the wire fast so the spool stays in place as it unwinds.   I think this is the Hammet shuttle that came with my Kessenich Loom.

 

Here's another one of the wire spindle types.  This time with a new twist!

 

The wire spindle is held in place with a small round magnet that has been inset into the wood at just the right depth.    In this Padouk wood shuttle, the magnets are on both sides, making it very simple to operate and reload the spindle with a spool of yarn.

 Here's one of my favorite sherry Shacht kayak shuttles.  It uses a different method to hold the spindle pin in place. 

 

One end is free to swing up, while the other end is help in place with a pin shot through the spindle.

There's a small hole with a pin perpendicular to the spindle, holding it in place on this one. 

Here's another shuttle from Handy Woman in Texas where she combines a lot of these ideas all together.

Here we have the small magnet on the "free" end of the pin ...

... while the anchor side has another pin stuck through the side allowing it to swing up and out.

Here's the hole on the side where the pin anchors the spindle.

 

Too many shuttles?  Maybe -- You don't figure out what you like to use until you try them. 

Different woods - Different feels - Different purposes - Different weights - holding different sized spools -- Different makers.  Easy to collect!

 

I leave you with a little fall color -- The Sumacs in the neighbor's yard.