quest for crofter tartan loom reenactment

[NHhighlander]

Hi all,

short:
I'm starting to weave tartan. For my full project (details lower), I intend to build my own loom.
A beart mhor (wood loom)is what I have in mind.



(image found on an internet blog. Gauldie's book is amazing. Perhaps it has the "answers," except the super important one about finding birds of like feather, which would be way cool...)

Questions

1. anybody feels like I should focus on a particular period?
   Maybe late 1700s, early 1800s, the Highland Revival soon after the Repeal of the Proscription act because so much was happening then, or perhaps shortly before, as I am finding a sort of deeper kinship with highly skilled weavers of tartan escaping persecution, maybe that one that perhaps came to Cape Breton?
2. Resources, ideas on how to do my research?
3. perchance, are you or do you know someone who is into reenacting period tartan weaving?

Long

The loom itself, and weaving, are not exactly our focus as "kilt wearers," but warp-and-weft are intrinsic problems of kilt, and many of us here are reenactors, so I feel this is an OK question to ask where experts and entusiasts on this narrow topic are more likely to be found, rather than a general weaving forum...
Regarding point 2 above, maybe you know of some other forum to ask this question? or a particular Museum, or any such resource? I'm intrigued by this one, for example https://www.harristweed.org/journal/...or-restoration

Hard evidence for something this specific and old is not too easy to come up with. For example, besides the uncanny fact that of three Total Border tartans that are known (v. P.MacDonald Antigonish papers), two have been found in Cape Breton and only one in Scotland, it's mostly an (educated) guess that I join that a Proscription-persecuted highly-skilled craftsman ended up in Nova Scotia and set up shop. Howeber, the most relevant opinion that I read seems to be that those arriving that early were likely to be focusing more on getting enough food to survive, rather than making fancy plaid, and maybe even not coming earlier than the Repeal anyway.
Any particular contact in NS that you think I should seek?

details of the Big Project https://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/...ad.php?t=99113

Then, about point (1) above, construction of one particular loom is pretty much as difficult as another, so I might as well get the most fun and value possible. Trying to be historically accurate is something that resonates to a big extent with me (learned so much from doing WW2 reenactment... My persona was a Czech or Polish refugee in Occupied France. A pacifist intellectual trying to be useful in the Maquis. For example, printing flyers on period gelatine technology, eventually joining with the American forces to help a Medic, etc.)

Canopy-bed looms (my English word for ancient beart mhor) are bulkier than any contemporary design, which would explain perhaps why these are not found in modern books on loom construction. And, anyway, a modern design might not be what I seek. I like the idea that these are more sturdy and stable than modern hobby-level loooms...

Also, some museums have a tendency to display top-of-the-line devices of the era, the pictures that I am finding might not quite reflect the reality of a smoky, dark, poor crofter's cottage having just enough to do great work but not much more. (those internet pictures are a good start, of course, and I am grateful to all those sharing). What is more "period" that I am coming up with is mostly American Revolutionary; maybe good enough?

Or, you know that Scotish looms had some distinctive characteristic in their construction or operation back then. That knowledge would be priceless for my quest!
One of these that i know of already, as per Enid Gauldie's Spinning and Weaving, is that probably Highland looms were narrower than elsewhere at the time, because the strong tradition was of single-width plaids. This lets her posit also that flying shuttles were not likely, then. The evidence for this is in the surviving plaids themselves, not on really old looms, oldests I have found of so far are mid-1800s.
Mrs. Gauldie (née MacNeilage) passed last year in December.

Also other must-have parts and accessories, for example, period-appropriate warping board.
I am planning on whale-oil lamps, though probably will refrain from trying to go for actual whale oil... (maybe cod liver oil would be a good substitute? That certainly would give a multisensory experience...)

An answer to (3) could perhaps weave it all together!

For now, taking my time, hurrying slow, starting with due diligence and basics, for example learning to weave tartan, and looking to find out how to procure some old-barn wood.