Fringed selvedge

[Tarheel]

I see two edges in the photo Bert posted. One is caused by pinking shears and one appears to a manufactured edge with a hem.
Which is the focus of the thread?

Here is a photo of my pinking shears. Just for clarity.

[Twrecks911]

Mine is a Maron Mills PC, and I find the fringed selvedge not to my liking. I am going to put in a hem. Ideally, I not what I want, but I don't really think it will be anything someone would even notice or care about unless they were inspecting it up close.

[Steve Ashton]

I was fortunate to be able to tour the Marton Mills plant during my business trip in 2009. I had been buying wool and P/V fabric from them for over 5 years by then and while the wool always arrived with a tuck selvedge, whether the P/V arrived with a tuck selvedge or a fringe selvedge seemed to be random.



As you can imagine, I was just a little upset when a custom run of the X Marks Tartan arrived with the fringe and over 100 meters of double width fabric needed to be serged, pressed and hemmed.

What I found during my visit was that the looms on one side of the room produce the tuck selvedge and the looms on the other side of the room produce the fringe selvedge.
You have to remember that Marton Mills are primarily a weaver of fabrics for uniforms and academic wear. The Tartans they weave are used most for school uniforms and things like golf trousers where a tuck selvedge is not necessary.
It just depends on the the weaving schedule which side of the room the P/V fabric is woven on.



As I began to order more and more fabric and more and more custom runs, I was able to specify a tuck selvedge on the P/V orders. They create the weaving schedule months in advance so I have never had a delay.

Here is the head on one of the fringe looms cutting the fringe selvedge.



This fringed edge is a self-edge by definition just as a tuck edge is. It is a finished woven edge which does not unravel.

But Peter is right that a tuck or a fringe is less preferable to a true shuttle loom selvedge. There just are not many shuttle looms left in large production operations anymore. Although some larger mills are now installing true shuttle selvedge looms now that kilts are becoming big business and it is again economically advantageous.

I have heard that one weaver now has looms which can produce either a single width with a true selvedge on one end or, if warped as "double weave", can produce double-width fabric with a true selvedge on both edges.