Query for USA folk

Forgot to say, it's just over 8" long, 1" wide and 1/2" thick.

TIA Mary

It looks like a tray for burning stick incense.

Mary may be right. But usually incense burners for stick incense are wider at the end to catch ashes. Please post when you find out what it is. It looks interesting.

I asked here because the owner says it's a bone shuttle and wants us to replicate it.

Mary

Maybe a bone sword [to push the threads] shuttle ??? i am not so sure , might also have been used for help in working/making baskets !!! mirjam

Mary Fisher spun a FINE 'yarn':

+ ++Can you identify this, please? ++ ++ +Forgot to say, it's just over 8" long, 1" wide and 1/2" thick. + +TIA +Mary

Mary Fisher. . .

Until you added this dimensions I would've said it looked like a tatting shuttle...... N.

Yebbut there's nothing - no spool - on which to wind the yarn.

The person who's asked about it has now said that it was bought at a yard sale and they were told it was a shuttle - they didn't know!

Mary

It must be a kind of sword ,, or the stick one uses ,, when weving to separate threads ,,, mirjam

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:48c8d5ee$0$765$ snipped-for-privacy@master.news.zetnet.net:

it's not a shuttle. it might be a 'sword', but i've not seen a bone one, or one that shape.

obviously neither did the seller... did they indicate where in the US it might have originated? lee

A sword isn't curved and doesn't need a depression. in any case, a sword of that length doesn't need to be anything special, I use a shuttle or piece of wood or bone or hand - anything available.

All my contact knows is what she was told. I think she's in Dakota.

Mary

Oh, it might be a weaving shuttle then, but usually the ends are notched to keep the yarn from slipping off.

sue

...

How would the yarn be held on it?

Mary

You wrap it lengthwise. Here are some examples... These are stick shuttles -

a boat shuttle - a ski shuttle - for thicker yarns/rags - may be part of it is missing, too. sue

LOL! I know about shuttles - we make several types (and use them) - that's why we don't think it is a shuttle of eny kind. Yarn wouldn't stay on it

There's no sign of anything missing.

Mary

If the yarn is wound onto it in a figure of 8 pattern, it would stay on. I've used a ruler as a shuttle doing the same thing. It worked fine - the most difficult thing is holding the thread when you first start to wind the

1. the 'thing' you have would work easier wound with yarn in a figure of 8 pattern because it has the fat belly where the centre of the 8 goes.

I think that would be a make-do - the ruler wasn't intended as a shuttle. If you sold the ruler you'd used like that would you call it a shuttle?

Mary

No I wouldn't. But I know it's a ruler and I also know that it isn't shaped in such a way that indicates it is designed to do the job. It was a stopgap measure.

However, as I pointed out in my last post, the 'thing' you have is shaped in such a way that it would actually work in a way that is more difficult for a ruler to do.

If the ruler works, (and it did, and did so well except for the initial winding on of yarn) and it's only really a straight stick, then think how much better it would work if it was shaped like the 'thing' you have in your possession.

Try winding some yarn on it and also on a ruler using the figure of 8 wind. If you can't tell the difference between the two and how much better a fat bellied 'thing' works, I'd be very surprised. It wouldn't hold a lot of yarn but for a feature thread in a woven piece used as an ocassional repeat, it would hold enough.

I couldn't see a burning need to own a lot of those things though, so now I'm wondering how many they asked you to replicate and why. I would have thought that owning one as a curiosity item in a collection of 'stuff' would have been enough.

You haven't read all this thread, it's not in my possession, it was a query from someone in USA - which is why I specified US responses, it might have been something local.

See above.

So would I. We were asked because we make (and use) shuttles of several various types and in different materials - including bone - for museums, films, collectors and re-enactors and have never seen anything like this item. The person who asked only said it was a shuttle because she was told that when she bought it from a yard sale - which is, of course, unreliable.

She didn't want a number of copies, just one, and I don't know why. She's not a weaver but it's not my place to ask why another was required.

Mary

I have read all the thread. You never mentioned that it wasn't in your possession. I did understand that the item had been found in the US.

I falsely assumed that since you had been asked to "replicate" it and provided the dimentions of the item, that it must be in your possession.

Mea culpa. My craft interests resulted in me falsely assuming that "replicate" meant just that, not a best guess reproduction.

Once the repro is completed it might be worth giving my suggestion a try just to satisfy your curiosity as to whether it would work as a shuttle. I have ever confidence it will based on my ruler experience.

Neither have I, but given my use of a ruler as an effective shuttle, I could well believe that your client bone 'thing' could be indeed be a shuttle. Mind you, it could also be a dibble, a spirtle or something else.

The person who asked only said it was a shuttle because she was told

Indeed. See above.

Indeed. So long as the client is willing to pay for it who cares what it's used for.