"Hard" tartan

[Paul Henry]

Matt: That is very interesting. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Don't the finishers ordinarily remove knots (tangles?), bumps, and other weaving imperfections during the process? If so, are those left on the hard cloth? Also if so, are any of those on the hard cloth you just received?

The finishers are often a different company who wash or dress and finish the cloth, but they don't normally sort out the knots and threads.
All that sort of attention to detail is done in house at the weaving mill, many weavers outsource the finishing part of the process.

[mookien]

The finishers are often a different company who wash or dress and finish the cloth, but they don't normally sort out the knots and threads.
All that sort of attention to detail is done in house at the weaving mill, many weavers outsource the finishing part of the process.

Paul: Thanks. Obviously, I didn't know where the dividing line was between what the mill does and what the finishers do.

What you describe makes sense. The more noticeable/undesirable imperfections are removed before the finishers get involved.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The finishers are often a different company who wash or dress and finish the cloth, but they don't normally sort out the knots and threads.
All that sort of attention to detail is done in house at the weaving mill, many weavers outsource the finishing part of the process.

Paul is correct, this part of the process is done in house at the mill, and would be done on this unfinished "hard" tartan, as well.

Any knots, etc., would be on the "wrong" side of the cloth, and so while you may discover them there, they would not be visible on the kilt.

Any other mistakes in the weaving would be handled by someone at the mill, and by hand. For example, this is from MacNaughton's Islabank Mill (House of Edgar). They run every inch of the tartan cloth over a large light board, to identify any flaws.


Then those flaws are hand corrected.


This next photo is from Lochcarron in Selkirk. You can see where an erroneous orange thread was accidentally included in the warp, and it's being replaced by the correct green color, being woven in by hand with a needle.

(This was being done across the entire 30+ yard bolt of cloth, by the way).

I don't have any photos of this being done at Dalgliesh, but the process is the same, more or less, at every tartan mill in Scotland.