The figure above shows the ordinary, oval and half-round teeth used for silk combs.

Special reeds
Reeds for upholstery fabrics, fabrics for umbrellas and reeds with various paths of different arrangements.
Silk gauze reeds
The principle of reeds for plain gauze is strong teeth, ie thick, to hold the square of the gauze.For the shaped gauzes, ordinary reeds are used, for the shaping effects must be such that the warp threads can extend and the tooth of the reed does not mark.
Gauze to sift reeds
For the gauze to sift, they are reeds peculiar in their texture and dimensions, because of the quality of the fabric, which is intended for the industry of flour blending. This fabric is very rigid due to high warp tension. Since the fabric must be very elastic, the warps and wefts must be kept at a wet temperature.These reeds are made of strong teeth. According to the set of warp, the proportions are on average 50% full and 50% space. The sheds are very low and vary from 30 to 50 mm for hand looms. They were raised to 60 mm for the mechanical looms.These reeds have edges of 35 to 70 teeth per inch; The bottom must therefore be as for iron velvet, very just.
Set of the reed range from 30 to 250 teeth per inch. Due to the moisture required for this article, these reeds rust very quickly, so that the solder bonds are covered to avoid oxidation, which would gnaw the threads.
English Gaze (Gaze Marquisette)
The english gauze reeds made it possible to practically apply this article to the mechanical loom, since the doups (half heald) made of various textiles were used only for a limited purpose.These reeds made their appearance around 1910, in the region of Tarare and Amplepuis; They were then introduced in Lyon and in the Lyon region.
These are double reeds, one of which is used for straight thread and one for turn thread. They are placed in place of the healds, and by a special mechanism to their operation, which at the same time actuates the work and the displacement of the threads, a perfect gauze is obtained. The looms work is on average 140 strokes a minute, which gives an interesting production.
These reeds have also been perfected; The first used were made of curved and welded teeth, with an eyelet calibrated by a special mandrel; But in use, under the stress of the tension of the threads, these teeth were unbolted and the sheet of the warp became irregular, which generated the operation. In order to avoid this defect, the principle of the Grobb eyelet, that is to say a pierced and stamped tooth, has been used to remove the eyelet intended to receive the tour thread. This was a first very appreciable improvement, because the turning wire, constantly rotating in the eyelet, polishes it continuously.
Further improvements have also been made with regard to the safe operation and the ease of passing the threads on the looms.
Reeds for metal fabrics
The reeds for metallic fabrics are of a special texture; It is the thread of the warp which determines the passage, which must have just the necessary space to allow its operation, because exceptionally these reeds are always reed with a thread in a tooth.
This space is calculated per hundredths, depending on the density of the warp, as they range from number 1 to number 200 and up to metric inch. They have been made exclusively for a long time in mild steel, but for several years they are almost all made of hardened steel.
As with gauze to sift reeds, the binders are covered with solder; This way is especially necessary in fine reeds, which are very low shed. The frequent contact of the warp yarns with the yarns of warp could deteriorate the latter and create imperfections in the fabric.
The teeth of these reed vary from 5 to 12 mm in width, and the welds from 14 to 20 mm in height. The sheds range from 22 to 120 mm. They should be very straight, and the teeth should be placed squarely, for the slightest inclination, because of their width, would make the teeth prick, that is to say, they would tick, because of the great tension of the warp threads. Coches would stop the threads at the time of the work.These two conditions are therefore essential for a good manufacturing.
Reeds for beaded fabrics
The pearled fabrics were originally made with reeds with galleries and fixed forks, which were adjusted by hand, according to the size of the beads.The pearl reed in use today was invented by one named Essautier of Paris, notably for trimmings, then applied to the wide fabrics; It has been much done in 60 cm, but at present it is made in width of 110, 120, 140 and 160 cm, either with broken glass beads, with round pearls (called lead beads) or with pearls with flaps.
This reed is constructed in two parts:
The base, which includes the number of teeth needed at the bottom of the fabric.
The upper reed or pearl counter, so called for use, though it counts nothing, but serves to regulate the passage of pearls.
The reed is mounted on bearings, or on pivots, fixed to the special fitting of the base reed; It is therefore mobile, but retained plated to the lower comb by two pressure springs.On the frame are fixed to the right and to the left two metal pieces each provided with a screw for adjusting the passage of the beads.
The right-hand piece has a special shape to make contact with the release lever at the time of passage of the beads between the two reeds.
This release lever consists of a movable piece of the loom by an adjustable rod; The batten being fixed itself on a mobile device, called elevator, descends on the shot of beads, and it is at the moment of its rise that the triggering occurs. (The whole is controlled by mechanics)
The feature of these reeds consists of different sets, ie if the base reed has 10 teeth per cm, or 27 teeth per inch, the upper reed will have 5 teeth per cm or 12.5 teeth per inch.
For this purpose, the base reed has two teeth welded at their ends, closing one passage, and leaving one open, to allow the bead thread to pass from the base reed to the upper reed.
The teeth of the upper reed are placed on the flat so as to cover the two teeth of the base reed, leaving only the passage necessary for the bead thread, for the sole purpose that these be well retained in their places, and pass before the reed only at the moment of the triggering, commanded, as said above, by the mechanism.
Pearls are often irregular; The adjustment is therefore made on the average size; so that it often happens that the fines pass to double, and that the fat ones are wanting. It is therefore for the weaver to rectify the blow of pearls.
Fan reeds for warp undulations
The fan reeds are constructed by paths of different widths and are actuated by an upward movement to obtain the ondulations effects of the warp.To hold the straight edges, one begins with a half-way and ends in the same way.
Fan reeds for tubular fabrics
This special reed with narrow fabrics is also operated by an upward movement.
Umbrella sheaths are commonly used with this type of reed. Tubular ties were also made, consequently seamless, the neck of which was of a reduced width to adapt easily, and then widened to be able to make the knot of the tie. It is also with this kind of reed the elastic tissues that are used in orthopedics.
Wavy reeds for weft effects
These reeds are also constructed by paths and corrugated into concave and convex shapes. Operated by an ascending movement, they place the picks in opposition of undulation. This fabric is very delicate to weave, because it is necessary to adjust the tension of warp and weft threads to avoid pockets on the fabric.
One can, with this type of reed as with the fan reeds, make many arrangements of colors. The application of these reeds to the hand looms can very well be done to the mechanical looms.
Reed moire tracers, called reeds to music
Before knowing the reeds with moving teeth, certain kinds of moire have been traced with fixed undulating reeds; The results obtained with these reeds could not be identify, as the tracing to the rule after weaving was done equally well.The first reed with moving teeth was invented by Taverrier, "moireur" in Lyon, and patented on February 23, 1865, under the number 66.363.
This reed was with straight teeth, which made contact with the cylinder, which was fixed on the special handle of the batten.
This form of tooth did not make it possible to obtain the clarity of certain drawings, the hollows of which were close together; To obtain a better result, the mobile teeth have been hollowed out at their upper part, a little below their contact with the cylinder, for the sole purpose that the surface which touches it is very small, and that it can reproduce The drawing with more sharpness.This new form of tooth was the subject of a certificate of addition to the original patent dated September 26, 1865.
Although this new form of tooth produced better results, they were still insufficient.
We have therefore imagined an intermediate organ that has been called a keyboard. This specially shaped keyboard was placed between the reed and the cylinder; It was composed of a number of pieces of die-cut sheet steel.They were thicker than the teeth of the reed, and for 1,500 mobile teeth the keyboard was about 300 teeth.
The point of oscillation of the teeth of the keyboard was eccentric so as to multiply the importance of the patterns fixed on the cylinder. It was fitted between the cylinder and the reed. The beak-shaped upper part made contact with the drawing and the lower part with the reed; This keyboard has allowed to follow the shapes of the drawings more faithfully.
The cylinder was actuated by a take up motion placed on the right post of the batten and controlled by two corner pinions, one with take up motion the other to the axis of the cylinder.The whole of this apparatus reed-tracer of moire was thus composed:
- From the tooth reed- From the keyboard of transmission of the drawing- From the cylinder control take up motion- From the batten on the handle of which was adjusted the keyboard and the cylinder- From the raddle shuttle guide
It was therefore with these different organs that the first moire tracers were formed. These apparatuses, although very complicated, have given very good results. They were nevertheless susceptible of improvement, for several principal points contradicted the principles of weaving, and very often produced very detrimental workmanship.It was therefore in 1892 and 1893, during the great moire season, which lasted more than two years, that your servant was called upon to study all the improvements likely to improve these apparatuses, from the point of view both of weaving and their proper functioning.
What, in principle, was this device reproached for?
The different parts being separated, it was necessary to hoist the reed by stopping it, in order to avoid the lateral space which would have displaced the drawing fixed on the handle of the batten. This hoist made the warp threads scratch by the reed.The keyboard teeth, though thicker than those of the reed, frequently passed through, which damaged the good tracing of the drawing and damaged the reed.
The shuttle was guided by a raddle consisting of needles, which broke very often, and especially pricked the fingers of the weavers. It is to remedy these various inconveniences that I have constructed the present apparatus.
First of all, I combined the main organs, the reed, the cylinder and the take up motion. This constituted a first development which was very appreciable from the practical point of view, for it became free in its batten like an ordinary reed, and no longer needed to be hoisted, all the organs following the lateral movement imparted by the displacement of warp. So more or fewer scratches of the warp, nor the fear of displacement of the drawing.The raddle shuttle-guide was also suppressed by a special construction of the battens, for which I make it a point to recall and thank Mr. Lespinasse for his precious collaboration.
A third improvement, the most important of all, is the special form of the tooth, which has at its extremity a horizontal beak terminated by an inclined plane, upon which act first the relief motifs of the cylinder; It nevertheless follows all the details with great precision.
It is this form of the teeth which enables it to receive the direct action of the cylinder with efficiency, giving results superior to those of the preceding apparatus.
Most moire tracers have teeth moving only about half their width, but may be completely mobile teeth.
Until now, most of these apparatuses has been employed in hand looms, but various experiments have been made in the mechanical loom, and I can assure a simple and practical application thereof.These moire tracer combs apply to plain, pekins and shaped fabrics, as well as to belts and ribbons, and in the widths of 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120 and 140 cm.
The drawings can be established in ratios of 13 to 20 cm, but can develop indefinitely by the take up motion work.
I come to the end of this presentation with the hope of having all interested you; I would like to thank you for the constant attention with which you have listened to me. I would be doubly rewarded if I succeeded in making you understand the technical importance that weaving reeds deserve and, therefore, the reed manufacturer.

Manufacturer of weaving combsA. PradatLyon, 1927

The choice of the canes was made very meticulously, especially as regards the diameter, which gave different widths of teeth in relation to the thickness.The sticks were first cut into lengths, then slit into teeth. For this operation, very primitive means were employed at the beginning, which were gradually perfected, and lastly special tools were called "rosettes", that is to say cylindrical metal mandrels, on which were arranged knives for slitting the pipes.
After this operation, each tooth was calibrated in a spinneret, to give it its definitive and regular width, as well as its thickness.
The reed-canes being porous inside and polished externally, their natural bark had a more resistant surface to the friction of the threads, and gave a semi-round shape to the tooth.
The worker therefore placed the teeth so that the face polished by nature is constantly in contact with the threads, ie presenting this face on the outside, on both sides of the reed; For that, at half the comb, the workman turned the tooth, for it is the two extremities which fatigue the most, the medium experiencing this fatigue only by graduation.


Manufacture of metal pins or reed teeth
Metal teeth or pins are made with mild steel wires.In the beginning this manufacture was rudimentary; The materials used were of inferior qualities, so there were often defects. The first tool used was also rudimentary: the rolling mills were manually operated, which made the operations very long and the teeth irregular.
But the tooling has constantly followed the progress, it is at the peak of its improvement.
The main operations of the manufacture of the reed teeth are as follows:
The lamination, which crushes the round wire to bring it into a flat ribbon. It is done in several passes, according to the numbers and widths.
The wide drawing, which consists of calibrating the width, because the lamination always leaves irregularities.
Gouging, that is to say the depression of the angles. This operation is done especially for the tooth of the silk reeds; It is not necessary for the tooth of the cotton reeds, which only undergoes a simple polishing.
A first dressing of the edge and the surface, because the previous operations have modified the metal in both directions.
The polishing, which is done with a set of limes and very fine emery cloth.
The final dressing, during which a careful check is carried out before rolling on the delivery rolls.

From manufacturing various combs
Reed combs - The most important part of this manufacture was the preparation of the teeth and the lineul. For the assembly of these reeds, the tooling was much the same as that used today for steel combs, called hand-fitting. This is still frequently done today for the assembly of the special reeds of which I will speak later. The manufacture of combs in reed is still done, but less and less, for China and Japan, which still used them, use more and more metal reeds.
The first evolution of this reed was manifested by the use of steel teeth for the edges or cords of reed combs. Then the reed tooth was completely replaced by the metal teeth; This kind of comb was called a pitch bound reed because the ligatures remained in ligneul or in peeled cotton.
The pitch bound reed is still preferred in cloth and wool articles because it retains an elasticity which can not be achieved with welded, mechanically mounted reeds.At the beginning of the use of the metal tooth, the reeds were mounted for a very long time by hand, then a first machine was built, which was called "small machine", and then more complete machines were created which were first used to make the reeds of blankets, woollens, sheets, cloths and cotton fabrics.
For the silk reed, more sophisticated machines were needed, and it was not until about 1878 that the silk reeds were mechanically assembled at Lyons and Saint-Etienne, while employing, as stated above , hand mounting for special reeds. It is thanks to the improvement of the manufacture of the tooth that we can now and quickly fabricate the weaving reeds.
Welded combs
The appearance of the welded fencing took place in England in the seventeenth century, and Paulet says in his work published May 20, 1775:
"It was not long ago that it was imagined in England to make the coronels of the reeds with a substance similar to that of which the printing characters are made. This ingenious invention is full of difficulties in order to succeed as it should, that we need a mold in which the steel teeth are placed in a precise order, after which they are fixed by casting the material which forms the frame, but in the rest of Europe the steel reeds are mounted like those of reed, that is to say, with lineul and cotton. "
On this subject, I still remember that at the beginning of my apprenticeship, about 45 years ago, the manufacturers of reeds called these metal reeds english combs, which consecrated this english origin of welded reeds.
Although the cast material was not solder, it made a very strong block.
Nevertheless, the english procedure has been abandoned for the use of welding, which was first made of iron. Currently, it is done in the bath; but for certain genera, and in certain regions of France, it is still made by iron.
I shall first go through the ordinary reeds, and then speak of the improvements which have been made there.

List of ordinary reeds
The ordinary reeds form three categories:
Light reeds at 14 at the Paris gauge or 22/10. Welding 10 / mStrong reeds at 16 in the gauge of Paris or 27/10. Welding 12 mmExtra strong reeds at 17 at the Paris gauge or 30/10. Welding 14 mmThese reeds are made in various sheds, varying from 55 mm to 80 mm and even more, depending on whether they are to be used for plain, shaped or broached fabrics.

Iron velvet reeds
The reeds of velvet with iron, although being of the category of light reeds, require special care. They have a usual shed of 25 lines or 57 mm. This shed has been increased to 60 mm on the demand of some velvet manufacturers.The velvet reeds need to be very straight and very polished, so that the strike does not pitch the irons at the moment of the stroke. They have a particular contexture; They are counted per number of 40 teeth. The most usual provisions are: 21, 21.5, 24, 24.5 and 2 porters. At each extremity they have a certain number of stronger teeth for the cords; It is therefore essential that the number of theeth is very fair.
Double velvet reeds
There are two kinds of double velvet reeds:
1- One shuttle reeds2- Two shuttle reeds
One shuttle reeds are typically built on the 18 34/10 at the Paris gauge, for shed varying from 70 to 80 mm for plain articles and 19 to 4 mm for shaped  fabrics to shed variying from 100 mm to 130 mm.
Two shuttle reeds are made of 4, 4.5 and 5 mm wide teeth, with shed ranging from 110 to 130 mm.
The welding of these two types of reeds is generally 14 mm, reinforced in thickness.The ordinary reeds are the basis of manufacture. For reeds of silk and velvet, the proportion of full, that is to say the thickness of the tooth, is 40%; For the portion reserved for threads or voids, it is 60%.
The good quality of a comb consists mainly in the use of good raw materials, in particular welding and care in manufacturing.
The regulatory proportions listed above are for a normal texture, but in many circumstances, particularly for the use of various materials, such as fleeced and loaded silks, the "Canton", as well as artificial silk, we found  difficulties to overcome. It is then that the special reeds have their usefulness. Firstly, very ordinary toothed reeds were produced, giving proportions of 30% full and 70% space. With these reeds, a better result was undoubtedly obtained, but this result was only partial. In particular, defects were observed in the middle of the fabric, for the ordinary tooth had an angle with which the warp threads were constantly in contact, which proves that this part of the threads did not employ the proportion of space indicated.
On the other hand, despite the reinforcement of the reeds, one feared with these reeds with extra fine teeth, to fall into another defect: the scratches.
In order to obtain a better result, the tooth was given the semi-round shape of the reed. This semi-round shape gave satisfaction to the silks.

The oval tooth is nowadays generally used for artificial silk, where it is also highly appreciated

I say definitive because weaving having evolved to the mechanical loom, preparations were also transformed and warping by threads has almost completely replaced warping by halfporter that is left for handlooms, fewer and fewer (this text was written in 1927). Thread warping uses, according to the region, inclined and circular creels.
The sloping creels are provided with two raddles. The first is a dividing comb composed of as many divisions as the creel has rows, and each row has a number of passes corresponding the number of wood spools.
The second raddle, regular, is intended to stabilize the threads ply before the dividing comb which this comb goes up porter reed and thence on the warping drum.
The circular creels use only dividing combs and lease reeds.There are different types of dividing combs: single, double, triple leasers.
I will now talk about the manufacture of weaving reeds in general.

Preparations for the manufacture of reed.
The manufacture of reeds is intimately linked to the manufacture of the tooth. For reeds in reeds, it was the reed manufactures who made their teeth themselves.
Until 1886, certain houses of Lyons even made metallic teeth; It was only from this period that the manufacture of the tooth became a special industry.
The production of the reed tooth was of great delicacy, because it could not be used for this production that the bark of the reed.
I shall not undertake to describe this manufacture, but I wish to point out some peculiarities.

The art of the reed manufacturer
Lecture given at the Lyons Municipal School of Tissageunder the auspices of the Society of Former StudentsBy A.Pradat, Manufacturer of reeds, in 1927(Full Text)

I call my talk "L'Art du Peigner", because we find this term in Paulet's work: The Art of the Fabricator of Silk, crowned by the Royal Academy of Sciences, May 20, 1775.
You certainly know that the origin of the reed goes back to the highest antiquity. Nevertheless, in primary looms, that is to say in vertical warm looms, there was no use of a reed but of a ruler called spatha, with which the weft was struck to reduce the stuff.
It is indisputable that this primitive means has been advantageously replaced by the weaving reed. It has been employed since the appearance of the horizontal warp loom, and although its use has always been observed among the Chinese, its origin goes back to the Egyptians, where it replaced the Babylonian needle.
Before speaking of the reed properly so called, I will briefly discuss the winding raddles (dividing comb), the creels and the lease reeds.
A winding raddle is a kind of reed closed at the base and open at its upper part, in which the worker distributes the warp, usually by half a halfporter. A halfporter being of 40 threads, it is therefore by 20 threads that it will be put into a raddle.
The raddles were first constructed by the shuttle manufacturer, which pierced holes in wooden frames of the required dimensions, and furnished them with iron rods, copper, wood, and even ivory.
All these stems were originally straight, and of different sizes according to the set of warp, which united the threads into bundles, which accumulated on each other and created a defect in weaving, called stripes of "muselage".
To avoid this defect, the metal rods were bent in the middle, so as to place the upper part of the rods in the line of the lower void, and passing a crossing rod in the lease, the threads were divided; As a result, the half half-porter was half-distributed on two different planes, thus avoiding the packing of the threads, which constituted a first improvement.
But in the construction of these raddles, a new defect appeared in use: although the rods were strongly fixed in the frame, they took play and frequently turned.
A raddle was then imagined, the rods or teeth of which were inclined and welded at the base, which prevented them from turning. Thus was constituted the definitive raddle.