Metal spindles

We are very much a product of our culture and the expectations programmed into us by that culture.

We recognized neolithic spindle whorls that fit on a wooden shaft.  These were made of wood, bone, stone and ceramic. We found/find a lot of them, and they continue up into the bronze and iron ages. See for example http://pinterest.com/habetrot/whorls-spindles/  Subsistence communities still using such spindles to spin coarse yarns. Moreover, bronze and lead whorls on a wooden shaft work very well.  However, in the bronze and iron ages, population exploded and cloth production increased dramatically, and professional spinners associated with industrial scale cloth production needed faster ways to spin.

If I were an Iron Age spinner, and I needed to spin a lot of garment weight (5,000 to 10,000 ypp) yarn quickly for weaving, what would I use?  I would use a piece of iron or bronze wire with a wooden whorl that acts as a yarn spool or pirn.

Certainly many folks use steel wire for the shafts of bead spindles such as http://askthebellwether.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-is-bead-spindle.html .  However, the idea of using a metal blade with a wooden bobbin or pirn as a whorl seems to be rare these days. 

The concept works for both drop spindles and supported spindles. We can look at medieval art, and see nothing what-so-ever that looks anything like this.   See http://pinterest.com/gbertholet/medieval-crafts-spinning-spindles/ for example.  On the other hand, in that art, we also do not see anything that looks like the industrial production of shiploads of cloth for export either. And, we do know that such production was going on.  Art is not the last word on industrial production technology.

It is not pretty, but it is an awesome spindle for spinning. The metal "blade" (shaft) is small enough that the spindle can be spun up to very high speed, which is somewhat limited by the diameter/inertia of the wooden whorl. It is much faster than a spindle with a wooden blade and a whorl. It is faster than a spindle with a steel shaft and  "spindle beads" as the relatively high inertia of the spindle beads tends to slow the spindle.   Drafting is just like drafting for any other spindle, just faster.  Most modern recreational spinners will find it difficult, and thereby assume that I know nothing about spinning with a spindle.  They will object to having to spin the spindle frequently and assume that I know nothing about spinning.  No, it is a matter that I tend to spin garment weight yarns, and I want much higher rates of twist insertion than most modern recreational spinners can accommodate.  I know that the spindle is slowing because it is putting a lot of twist into the yarn and a lot of twist in the yarn is what I want.   Most modern recreational spinners using a drop spindle are not trying to spin as fast as possible. They spin for relaxation.  I spin because I want yarns that are not commercially available.  Thus, I want to spin as fast as possible.

The design has many advantages. It is cheap and durable. This spindle design can withstand being dropped on a stone floor many times. It is easy to fabricate.  And. the wire can be used to toast marsh mellows or cheese over an open fire.  :  )  The wooden whorl/bobbin allows very fast wind-on, and instead of winding off, the  bobbin/whorl/pirn can be slipped off, and handed to the person doing the plying or even to the weaver as a wound shuttle pirn. This can speed the entire textile production process. 

However, such tools are not likely to be found in the archaeological record because when they break the pieces will either get reforged or reused as wire. To anybody that actually makes stuff, such little pieces of metal are very handy.  And, archaeologists are not looking for such a spindle, it is not part of their culture. They are looking for spindle whorls of stone, ceramic, lead, bronze . . . . 

Did any previous culture every use such spindles?  Who knows?, but it is an intermediate step between a neolithic spindle with a metal whorl and a flyer/bobbin assembly.  This suggests that at some point, somebody did work with the concept. (Or, perhaps that intermediate point did not occur until bobbins were put on the spindles of great wheels.)  And, without the wooden bobbin, you have the "twisty stick" that was traditionally  used by wool merchants to grade wool.  Since the grading (and hence price) of wool was based on how fine a thread a competent spinner could spin from the wool, this suggests a relationship between the grading tool and the spinning tool. It may be that at the end of the dark ages, the grading tool was just a metal spindle without its bobbin.