Mill visit, book reading, and a bound chart set
Loom-shift chart
The loom-shift chart is the commission we are asked for most often. A supervisor can feel which looms misbehaved, but the night book is the only record that settles the argument. We turn that book into a sheet a day shift and a night shift can both stand in front of.
Who it is for
Owners and floor supervisors of weaving sheds who still close each shift with a handwritten book of cloth meters. It suits a single hall, not a group of mills, and it suits a period you can point to — often fourteen nights, sometimes twenty-eight.
What you receive
You leave with an inked chart set for that hall and that run of shifts: cloth meters by loom, stops marked apart from warp changes, and a short spoken walkthrough in the mill office so the clerk and the supervisor are looking at the same lines.
Inside the commission
- One visit to the weaving hall, timed between shifts when the clerk can sit with us
- A line-by-line reading of the shift book, warp tickets, and cloth-meter slips for the named period
- Pencil drafts at the studio, then inked charts on cotton paper
- A review hour with the supervisor before the ink is final
- A hand-over at the mill office, with the charts left there
Outside the commission
- Loom repairs, reed changes, and fitter work
- Buying yarn, beams, or dye
- Payroll, piece rates, and attendance
- A second hall, or nights that were never written into the book
How the work proceeds
- BriefYou write with the mill district, the hall, and the shift dates. We reply within two working days with a visit window and the starting fee.
- VisitA draughtsman comes to the shed, usually in the quiet hour when one shift has signed the book and the next has not yet started the looms.
- ReadingWe sit with the clerk. Cloth meters, stops, and warp changes are copied only when the book actually records them. Blank lines stay blank.
- DraftPencil charts are drawn at the Khlong Sam Wa studio. The first sheet is the hall as a whole; the following sheets are the looms that need a closer look.
- ReviewThe supervisor marks anything that does not match the floor. We would rather redraw a loom than defend a line the night shift will not recognise.
- Hand-overThe inked set is left at the mill office. We walk the sheets once, then the charts stay with the mill.
Before we arrive
Keep the shift book, warp tickets, and cloth-meter slips for the named dates in one place. Tell the clerk we are coming. If the book uses a private shorthand for stops, a few minutes with the person who wrote it saves a return trip.
Limits we will hold
One weaving hall per commission. The book has to be legible enough for the clerk to read aloud. We do not invent meters for a loom whose slip was lost. If the hall ran more than about forty looms, the fee is quoted again before we book the visit.
Next step
Send the hall name and the shift dates from the visit page. The drawing starts only after the date is agreed and the deposit is paid.