I am posting this on my blog hoping the wandering masses of older Kessenich loom owners(not the people, the looms) can find the information they need to replace the cords on their looms. Recently I decided to redo the internal cords/ropes. I had an extremely difficult time finding information on the web regarding this process. I have owned this loom, a 1950's cherry Kessenich 36" since 1978. It worked beautifully until 10 years ago when the ropes started to break. I redid the ropes at the time but since have notices my shafts are no longer level and the ropes appear to be stretched out and soft. At the time I used what Kessenich Looms sent out as a how to. There was no other information out there at the time. My loom did work after the first rethreading of the ropes. I will use the term cord and rope interchangeably for the same item. This time around I did find one other site that had useful information regarding the replacing of the ropes. KBknits and Crafts. This blog was very helpful and I am grateful this person decided to post her process and what materials to use for replacement. I also contacted Bruce Niemi of Kessenich Looms in Allgeran, MI for further information. Bruce was very helpful and I also am very grateful for his time on the phone with me.
I put together 5 pages of information on how to approach this process. I will post the links here. They are jpeg files and should be easily downloaded. I also will post pics following the process. Good luck. It is a difficult, time consuming process. It took me over 40 hours and a great deal of frustration. But in the end, well worth it.
Important tip: When adjusting the knots at the bottom of the lamms(below) and the shaft sticks(above), do not pull on the cording. Pulling the cording down so you can access the knot more
easily will cause major chaos with the cord wound around the pipes. It will cause more wraps on the pipe and you will need to redo the wrapping of the cords.
Cord/Ropes Replacement on Kessenich Weaving Floor Loom PDF File
