Friday, January 25, 2013

Hammett Counterbalance No. 402

I was given a chance to purchase a Hammett counterbalance loom recently for a great price.  After some  thought, I decided to go for it.  So now I have a sturdy 45" loom  versatile enough for rugs and capable of fine weaving and everything in between.  My little jack loom isn't strong enough for rug weaving, so I am really looking forward to trying that on this new loom.


With the help of my husband and a friend, we were able to disassemble the loom for transport to our home and reassemble it in the basement.  I need to clean it up and read a little more about weaving on a counterbalance loom before I can start weaving on this loom.

The loom came with several shuttles, reeds in various sizes, a spool rack and a home made warping board in need of some repair.   I purchased the loom from someone other than the original owner.  The current owner's husband was selling the loom after she had passed away, so I was not able to talk to her.   I do not know if this owner was the second owner or if there were any others in between her and the original owner.  In a box that came with the loom I found the original sales receipt from 1946 and correspondence letters between the original owner and the Hammett company.  It was an interesting trip through history and told me a little about the past of my loom.  I scanned the documents to save them as some are very yellow and brittle.  Here are a few of them:


Below are a couple pages from the advertisement flyer:

And a few pages from the manual:

including a couple weaving drafts:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting pages from the Hammett manual! Have you enjoyed weaving on it? I've been looking all over the web for instructions on my Hammett. Do you happen to have the page that explains the cloth beam and the mechanism to advance it? I think my loom is missing this...
Camille

Mavis said...

Camille,

My handbook provides a little information on the cloth beam, but not a lot. I can share with you what it says if you'd like to send me an email (sheepandshepherd at gmail dot com). I can also photograph my cloth beam ratchet assembly and email that to you if it will help. I recommend Janet Meany of The Weaver's Friend as a good source for old loom manuals (weaversfriend dot com)
I bought a couple from her when I first got my Hammett.

I am still getting to know my loom, but I love it and feel lucky to have such a sturdy loom. My plans for it include weaving rag rugs.

Mavis

Kaye Kingsbury said...

Hi Mavis,

I'm right there with Camille. My husband and I just finished 95% of putting a Hammett loom together. I will be contacting you requesting the same info as Camille needed. Thanks much for you help. Kaye

Rainbows in Wool said...

I would really appreciate any info you could send me so that I could get mine set up. I'm confused because I see pics with the hinged part of the treadles in front and I don't think that's the way it should be, plus the racheting thing is confusing me. Any help with copies of the Hammett info would be greatly appreciated.