Re: terminology

Posted by: "Faina Letoutchaia" This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tue May 20, 2008 11:03 am (PDT)

All these terms define very important construction features of the wheel. Drive band of the wheel goes around the big wheel itself and then around the whorl. The whorl is rigidly connected either to bobbin, or to flyer (bobbin and flyer have to rotate separately at times when you wind your
yarn on the bobbin).

If whorl is rigidly connected to bobbin, it's bobbin lead wheel. In this case a brake is applied to flyer whorl and this arrangement is called Irish, or German tension. Bobbin lead wheels are better suited for spinning heavier weight yarns, they usually have quite powerful take up, and fine adjustments are somehow tricky. As you spin, you hold yarn under tension and bobbin and flyer rotate together. As soon as you relax your tension and let yarn go, flyer stalls because of the brake, and bobbin continues to rotate, and yarn gets wound on the bobbin.

If whorl is rigidly connected to flyer it is flyer lead wheel, then the brake is applied to bobbin whorl and it's called Scotch tension (Babe calls it wonder tension). These wheels are very versatile, you can spin any weight of yarn on Scotch tension wheel; as wheel size and orifice size would allow. As long as you hold yarn under tension, flyer and bobbin rotate in sync. As soon as tension is released, bobbin slows down and flyer continues to rotate at the same speed, thus the yarn gets wound on the bobbin. Scotch tension is very sensitive and it allows you to spin very fine yarn on Scotch tension, or flyer lead wheels.

Double drive is a differential speed arrangement. Double drive wheel has drive band go twice around wheel - one time around the flyer whorl and second time around the bobbin whorl. This arrangement causes the flyer and bobbin to rotate at different speed all the time (they have to be different diameter, or there will be no take up) and provides very steady take up. Many people find double drive wheel tricky to handle and these are definitely more difficult to build.

This is the difference just in a nutshell, there is much more to it. Every type of wheel has it's strong and week points. Most of the wheels on market are flyer lead, of Scotch tension, double drive wheels you usually can use as, or convert to Scotch tension. Louet has a very reputable line of bobbin led wheels (Victoria was the first Louet flyer led wheel, Julia is their second). Ashford and Majacraft wheels are flyer led. So if some of your friends have Louet S series wheel and someone else has Ashford, or Majacraft, or Victoria, you can ask to try their wheels and see the difference. Babe has both Bobbin Lead and Flyer Lead wheels

Best,
Faina