Under Tension

 

There has been discussion on a weaving group about temples.

Now most people know I'm all about efficiency and because weaving goes more slowly when using a temple some people express surprise that not only do I use them when I deem it necessary, I even have a variety of sizes that fit from narrow to wider widths.

My AVL was 60" weaving width, so I have one that goes right up to 60", one that will do a much narrower warp, and one that will do a medium width.

Most people misunderstand why one would use a temple in the first place, and many more don't use them to their effective 'best'.

People worry about shredding their selvedges.  And yes, this can happen, if the temple is not positioned well.  Using a 'standard' temple means the teeth should bite into the cloth about 1/4" from the edge, not into the selvedge ends.  

Temples will not prevent dimensional loss once the web is removed from the loom.

Temples will keep a tender yarn from drawing in at the selvedge \ and / while in the loom which will prevent abrasion on the selvedges during weaving.  Temples will allow for a more dense cloth to be woven.  By keeping the warp threads well spaced and the same width as the warp in the reed, the weft can be beaten in more easily.

Temples need to be kept as close to the fell as possible.  When people complain about the temples scratching the breast beam, sometimes the problem stems from not keeping the temple within an inch of the fell.

I did the video a few years ago when I still had the AVL and the air assisted fly shuttle.  When I use the temple I will count out how many picks in an inch, stop and move the temple to within 1/4" of the fell and begin weaving again.  The rhythm of weaving one inch, moving the temple, weaving one inch, moving the temple becomes part of the rhythm of weaving that particular cloth.  Yes, it's slower, but I get the results I want without fighting to get them.

Now, on the AVL I had live weight tension but on a loom with a friction fit brake, care must be taken to let off only a little bit of warp to advance.  The weight of the temple can otherwise let off too much warp and repositioning the fell can be a bit of a problem.

Yes, I might prick my fingers if I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing, but once I got used to using a temple, it rarely happened.  I have never scratched the breast beam of any loom that I have used a temple on.

To initially set the temple into the cloth, you have to do it over a distance, gradually spreading the warp out to the weaving width.  As the header is woven, there will be draw in and that narrow width needs to be gently spread out.  The wider the warp, the longer this will take, spreading the warp out about 1" on either side at a time.  It takes about 3" of weaving before the next spreading can take place because the new width needs to stabilize.  Patience, Grasshopper!

Some people prefer the metal temples and they have some pros, but also some cons.  Pro - they are nice and smooth, narrower in their profile so easier to see your weaving.  The wooden ones are lighter than the metal ones, but the wood grain can sometimes catch on very fine yarns, and being wider block view of the cloth.  I have wooden ones which I use, in part because they are cheaper than metal ones and I don't use them often enough that I felt I could justify the extra expense or deal with the heavier weight.  If I were weaving weft faced rugs, I might have made a different decision.

So, when do I decide it is necessary to use a temple?  

When using a tender yarn that will abrade if it draws in.

When wanting a denser cloth where the weft will not beat in as much as required.

When working with a very fine yarn at more than about 30" in the reed.  What I have found is that the draw in happens primarily at the edges and the yarns within 3-6" of the selvedge can become looser and looser until the shed is not clear and skips/floats happen.  (Very annoying.)

Generally I do nothing about the weft other than just beat it in.  On a balanced cloth with an open shed, the weft will draw as much length off the bobbin as required.  No bubbles are hand manipulated.  YMMV.

I am sure there are other situations when a temple would be beneficial.  These are just the ones I can think of, off the top of my head.

If I could afford them, I would install rotary temples, although most of the ones I've seen available for handweavers are pretty 'tall' and if I'm hand throwing the shuttle wonder if they would get in my way.  The low profile of the 'standard' temple suits me for as often as I feel I need to use one.  Now that I'm 'retired' (for certain values of) I don't feel I can justify the expense of buying a Fireside rotary temple, try to install it on the Megado, especially without trying it out before investing in one.