What am I?
Today’s fiber mystery comes from my mother, who nabbed some excellent toys when helping to clean out a storage space at her work that was also used by the family of the company owner. She got some nice hand cards, some appalling wool top (really, it was gross), and this thingy. Over the phone it sounded as if it could be a boat shuttle of some kind — and she did find a bobbin winder in there, so would make sense…but this doesn’t look like any shuttle I’ve ever seen. Help?
Looks like a science project from the chapter on electricity, all it needs is a giant D cell battery.
But it’s got a bobbin! since when do science experiments have bobbins?
Looks like a homemade bobbin winder to me, although I’m not yet a weaver so I could be totally off.
I think it may be a part to a flying shuttle. Or something that would be used on an mechanical loom.
It’s a shuttle for weaving webbing or ribbon. I saw these things on eBay for years until I finally found out what they were.
Judy J is correct. These smaller shuttles were used for weaving webbings and ribbons. Both of my parents and grandfather worked in silk mills that used this type of shuttle. (Bethlehem Silk Mill, Belthlehem PA) Depending on the width of the loom, there could have been any number of shuttles – one for each ribbon. Some looms were 20′ to 30′ wide. The other side of the shuttle shown above has a row of teeth. A fibre gear would engage the teeth to move the shuttle back and forth. The shuttle shown is flat, so it would run in a stright track. Others shuttles were curved to run in a curved track.