A beater or

batten A batten is most commonly a strip of solid material, historically wood but can also be of plastic, metal, or fiberglass. Battens are variously used in construction, sailing, and other fields. In the lighting industry, battens refer to linea ...

, is a

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

tool A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...

designed to push the

weft In the manufacture of cloth, warp and weft are the two basic components in weaving to transform thread (yarn), thread and yarn into textile fabrics. The vertical ''warp'' yarns are held stationary in tension on a loom (frame) while the horizo ...

yarn securely into place. In small hand weaving such as Inkle weaving and tablet weaving the beater may be combined with the shuttle into a single tool. In rigid heddle looms the beater is combined with the

heddle A heddle or heald is an integral part of a loom. Each thread in the warp passes through a heddle,"Weaving." ''The Encyclopædia Britannica''. 11th ed. 1911. which is used to separate the warp threads for the passage of the weft."Heddle." '' ...

s. Beaters appear both in a hand-held form, and as an integral part of a

loom A loom is a device used to weaving, weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the Warp (weaving), warp threads under tension (mechanics), tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of ...

. Hand beaters must have enough mass to force the weaving into place, so they come in a variety of weights and sizes. Some may have

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

inserts to provide additional heft for a smaller beater, and some are made entirely from metal. Loom beaters typically take the form of a bar mounted across the loom. The actual beating is done by a metal insert known as a reed, which contains a number of slots, known as dents, which the warp threads pass through. This is the more common form, as floor looms and mechanized looms both use a beater with a reed. File:Salish Baton.JPG,

Coast Salish The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...

sword beater, North American west coast File:Greekurnwithweavers (cropped to warp-weighted loom).jpg, Sword beaters (or battens) on upright looms are indeed swung like a sword File:Egypt - Weaving.jpg, Sword beater on an Ancient Egyptian horizontal ground-pegged loom, being held by two people File:Needle, sword beater, pin beater, and loom weights, Shechem and Dothan, Iron Age I and II, bone or fired clay - Harvard Semitic Museum - Cambridge, MA - DSC06036 (cropped to loom).jpg, Bone sword beater (2) and adjacent bone pin beater (3), Iron age, Middle East Weaving in Braga (cropped to weaving).JPG, Weaving comb used for battening, Braga, Portugal File:QSMM Pemberton loom 2582.JPG, Reed beater mounted in a beater bar File:Pettine-liccio.JPG, Rigid heddles are a shedding device that can also act as a reed. File:Chantier de fouilles à Morigny-Champigny en juin 2012 20.jpg, Belt or band shuttle, a short shuttle used for inkle weaving. This extra-sturdy shuttle is also used at a batten, to beat the newly woven weft against the previously woven fell.

References

* * Weaving equipment {{tool-stub

See also

References