This is a milling machine. An old one.
Part of the finishing process for woven cloth, milling involves pummelling the material in order to break up the fibres and pull them together.
The cloth shrinks slightly, becoming denser and acquiring a spongier handle. It is a mild version of what you do if you accidentally shrink a sweater in the washing machine. It is creative destruction.
Milling is one of the many processes that a weaver can use to control the finish on its cloth – from smooth to hairy, heavy to light. Begg recently refurbished this old, wooden machine because it is one of the ways it achieves its distinctive ripple finish on its scarves.
Unlike many old machines, this one seems to produce a genuinely different effect to modern equivalents, largely because of the room the cloth has to move, and its particular ‘punching’ action.
I love old machines when they have a reason to be. It’s pretty too, right?
More on Begg – perhaps the best maker of scarves in the world – here.
Thank you, Simon- interesting post. As a bit of a cloth nut, I’m wondering what milling process – and other finishing processes – make a good cloth good. For example, H Lesser is known for a dessicated matte finish on its suit cloths & Carlo Barbera’s jacket cloths for their incredibly soft finish etc etc I really enjoyed your other posts on English and Italian cloth weavers and merchants, but would love to know what makes the best cloth stand out. cheers N
Thanks Nick. One thing to remember is that English merchants and any Italian ones without their own mills are not doing their own finishing (unlike Begg here). They use other finishers or mills, and little is therefore actually proprietary.
What are those wooden wheels shown at the end of the video for?
They connect to the power source
That’s sick.