The day before yesterday, I got a phone call from a friend, who said she'd just picked up this donated table loom and did I want to house it. It was currently in the back of her car. Of course I said yes. She dropped off this baby! It is made by Metiers Clement Inc, out of Saint Justin, Que. Interestingly, it seems like the company is still in business, although from what I could tell, they stopped selling looms in the 1980's.
It's big and it's heavy! It has a weaving width of 24 inches and is solid wood. It has 4 shafts, strong and secure levers for the brake release, front and back beams. I played with a Dorothy once, which had a flying brake lever. If you didn't move the brake lever in exactly the correct way, it flew off, across the room! It is a jack loom. It has sturdy metal lams and everything. The levers to move these are under the loom. It also has a sectional beam, like an honest to goodness real one, with a 1 inch spacing. I've never tried sectional warping before and it almost seems like it might be overkill on a table loom, except for the sturdiness of this little loom.
The loom needs a bit of TLC as well. For one thing, it's filthy. I mean really, dirty. It had a thick layer of dust and a layer of brownish grime, lots of build up of dirt and oil from handling the beater and spots of something brown and drippy, which I'm hoping was a benign substance. The front apron needs to be replaced and all the lamms need the decades old greased cleaned off, and replaced. However once that is done, it looks like it could be a fun little loom. I did find a photo of one of these looms on a little table stand, with the shaft raising mechanisms attached to treadles. I've already spent a couple of hours cleaning the loom up, with at least a couple more to go. Then I'll figure out how to dress the loom and give it a whirl.
