Oil on One Selvedge, Rust in the Middle: Two Faults, Two Photos

Ask for four things before the rest is woven and packed. First, the lubrication and maintenance record for the loom that wove this piece, since a mark that runs along one selvedge is a machine problem on one machine. Second, photographs of everything the cloth touched after the loom: the rollers, the cans or bins it was folded into, and the bale with its straps and lining. Third, a trial length woven after the fix, photographed at both selvedges and in the middle of the piece. Fourth, a spot test on an offcut of the piece you already have, so the mill and your cutting room agree on whether the mark is oil or iron. A new approval sample does not answer any of those questions, because the marks were made by the process rather than by the design.

A mark along one selvedge is a loom problem

Oil that runs down one edge of a piece almost always comes from the loom that wove it. Lubricant finds its way out of a bearing, a guide or a needle area, and once it touches the cloth it marks the same place for as long as the leak continues. The pattern is worth reading before the loom is touched. A continuous line along the full length points at a steady leak in one place. Marks that repeat in bands, with clean stretches between them, point at something that only touches the cloth at intervals: a guide that contacts the selvedge on part of its cycle, or a maintenance step performed at a fixed interval.

So ask for the lubrication record for that machine and for a photograph of the selvedge on a length woven after the fix. The mill knows which points are lubricated and when; a machine that has recently had its schedule compressed or a lubricant changed is a machine to look at first. Then ask for the trial length to be photographed on both selvedges, because a leak that has been stopped on one side sometimes reappears on the other when a guide is repositioned.

Rust in the middle is a different fault

Iron marks in the middle of a piece are rarely made on the loom. Rust needs water and oxygen to form on iron or steel, which is the mechanism the reference on rust describes, and in a woollen mill the water usually arrives with the cloth. A wet piece of cloth resting against a steel band, a strap, a stack of cans or a roller that has lost its coating will pick up iron, and the mark it leaves is a small dot or a speck rather than a line. In a humid week, a bale packed with steel straps and a damp piece inside produces exactly what you are describing.

So the photograph that matters here is not the loom; it is the route after the loom and the bale itself. Ask for the inside of a bale from this order, photographed with the straps, the lining and the packing material in place, and for the humidity note from the day it was packed. If the mill uses steel straps directly on the cloth, the question is whether a paper or plastic liner sits between them. If the cloth goes into steel bins or onto coated rollers before packing, ask for a picture of those at the point where the cloth touches them. Rust marks can be prevented with a liner and a dry week, and both are cheaper than a replacement length.

Spot test the offcut and mark the metres

Before the mill starts explaining, find out which fault you have. Take an offcut from the marked area and have the mark treated the way your cutting room would treat a spot: if the mark lifts with a solvent, it is oil, and it may come out of the finished garment with the right process. If the mark stays and the fibre around it is stained, it is iron, and iron marks are the ones that return after cleaning and, on wool, can weaken the fibre under them. Do the test on the offcut, never on the piece you intend to cut, and photograph before and after.

Then mark the positions. Lay the piece out, find every mark, and note how many metres from the leading end each one sits, with a photograph that shows the tape and the marks together. That list is what lets the mill connect the marks to a shift, a loom or a bale, and it is also what your cutting room needs in order to decide which panels can come from this piece. Without the list, the conversation stays at the level of a general complaint about the delivery, and general complaints produce general answers.

The record before the rest is packed

Ask for four photographs and one document before the balance leaves. The photographs: a selvedge on a length woven after the fix, the middle of that same length, the inside of a packed bale, and the rollers or bins where the cloth touches metal. The document: the maintenance entry for the loom, dated, with the lubricant named. If the mill changed the packing by adding a liner, ask for the packing specification line to be updated as well, so the change survives the next order and the next packing crew.

Keep all of it with the greige inspection record for the piece you have, if the mill keeps one. A mill that inspects greige goods will have a record of the piece before finishing; a mark that appears in that record was made upstream, and a mark absent from it was made after inspection, which narrows the search to the finishing or packing stage. That comparison is worth asking for on its own, because it costs the mill nothing and it often ends the discussion in one step. The storage side of a bale, including the moisture questions that make iron marks more likely, is covered in the bale packing notes, and this check is the other half of the same page.

Ask who lubricates the loom and when

One more question is worth asking while the machine is under discussion: who lubricates it, on what schedule, and with which product. In a small mill the answer is sometimes a fitter who covers several looms on a route, and the marks often follow that route rather than the machine. If a lubricant was changed because a supplier substituted a product, the leak may be new rather than old, and the cure is a different product rather than a tighter bearing. Ask for the name of the lubricant on the record, not just the date, and keep the answer with the photographs. On the next order, a change of lubricant is exactly the kind of small substitution that nobody reports and everybody notices in the cloth.

The same question applies to the reeds and the metal parts the yarn passes through. A reed with a damaged wire can mark a warp end repeatedly, and a wire that has rusted will leave iron on the yarn long before it leaves iron on the cloth. Ask for a photograph of the reed and the metal guides on that loom, taken after the fix, so that the part you cannot see in the finished cloth has at least been looked at once.

What to do with the piece you have

Cut around the marks, and be deliberate about where the marked cloth goes. A marked selvedge can be trimmed away if your panel layout does not need the full width, which is a cutting decision that belongs in the marker rather than in a conversation. Marks in the middle of a piece are the ones that cost real fabric, because the panel that would have come from that area has to come from somewhere else. Have the cutting room record how many metres were lost and why, with the mark positions from your list, and keep the offcuts.

Ask for the loss to be credited or replaced rather than absorbed. On a wool order the value of a metre is high enough that a replacement length or a credit against the next order is a normal request, and the marked piece with its list of positions is the evidence it rests on. Keep the marked piece itself until the claim is closed. Once it has been cut into panels, nobody can check whether the count of marks was complete, and the count is what the credit is calculated from.

Write the hold the same day

Send one message to the person who controls the loom floor and the packing bench. Name the order and the piece. Say the sample was clean and this piece carries oil along one selvedge and rust spots in the middle, and state the hold in one sentence: no further lengths woven or packed until the records exist. Name them. First, the lubrication and maintenance record for the loom that wove the piece, dated and with the lubricant named. Second, photographs of the cloth path after the loom, including the rollers or bins, and the inside of a packed bale with its straps and liner. Third, the spot test on an offcut, before and after, with the mark positions listed in metres. Fourth, a trial length woven after the fix, photographed at both selvedges and in the middle.

A release is your note that the trial length is clean, that the packing has a liner or a dry-weather record behind it, and that the loom entry is closed. A new approval sample, a promise that the operators have been spoken to, and a note that the marks will come out in finishing do not release the hold, because the marks you are holding are in the piece that has already been finished.

Keep the marked piece, the offcuts, the spot test photographs and the position list in the order folder with the lot number. Oil and iron are the two defects that a buyer can identify on a table in ten minutes, and the records from this piece are what make the next delivery checkable at the cutting room door.