Quote Originally Posted by Tobus View Post
By "float", are you talking about the white threads carried from one stripe to the next? As far as I know, that's normal and traditional with these old looms. I would also assume that they're trimmed off and tucked in (?) before going for finishing. Perhaps figheadair or someone else knowledgeable with traditional loom work could expand on that.
That is correct. Floats are the result of colour changes in the traditional type of schuttle loom, be it a hand-loom or mechanised-loom. It is normal that the long floats are cut off (the thread can't pull/run) or darned in during the finishing process. Shorter floats, I would never float more than 6 ends on my cloth) are often left as they are held tight to the selvedge by the tension. Has a hand-weaver who manually changes each colour, I would always cut off or weave-in long floats (depending on the end use) as I wove.

And one of the selling points of a traditional selvedge is herringbone (for those weavers who will do it). This sort of loveliness just can't be done with a tuck selvedge. These are the kinds of minor details that a lot of kilt-wearers don't care about, but I wanted to include in my custom run.
It's a fabulous traditional feature but does require proper layig out to get it to fall properly in the pattern. I often have to work out the complete warp to get this right.