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Old 15th December 2015, 05:09 AM   #2016
Jabba
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Carbon Dating/Doubts/Repair?/M&P/Entry #2

Originally Posted by Tomboy View Post
Apologies to the folks who want Jabba to do his own research. I was curious enough about the specifics of the technique to look for more info for my own knowledge, and then it seemed a waste not to share what I found.

Disclaimer: I’m a mediocre knitter, an abysmal seamstress and haven’t woven anything other than a placemat on a plastic loom when I was 6, so I welcome any corrections if my understanding of what I read is mistaken.

Hi Jabba,

In looking for more information about the French reweaving technique, I found this document with detailed instructions about the process. It has several images that may help you understand why a repair done using this technique will still be visible if one knows what to look for, even though it’s described as being an invisible repair technique.

Before we get to images, go to page 22 of the book (page 24 of the pdf) and read the text under the header The Problem of Extra Thickness.


Note the use of the word “inconspicuous” rather than “invisible”.

If you scroll down to page 23 of the book (page 25 of the pdf), there’s Visualgram No. 6 at the top. That image shows how to begin the repair by starting the reweave several threads away from where the damaged area is. The reweave needs to overlap undamaged areas of the fabric to secure it. That’s the sort of thing that will make the end result visible.

Scroll down to the next page, page 24 of the book (page 26 of the pdf) and at the bottom of that page is Visualgram No. 7. As the caption under that photo explains, the ends of the broken thread are visible, the thread that goes all the way across is the replacement thread, and the area where there are two threads side by side is the join that anchors the repaired area in place.

Pages 26 and 27 of the book (pages 27 and 28 of the pdf) have Visualgram Nos. 8 and 9, demonstrating how the joins are staggered. Again, the rows where there are two threads overlapping are highly visible compared to the other single thread areas.

Finally, the loose ends of the broken threads need to be trimmed and the instructions for that are on page 30 of the book (32 of the pdf). The first and third paragraphs under Visualgraph No. 10 instruct that if the ends of the trimmed threads are visible on the right side of the fabric, they should be pushed through to the back. Those thread ends won’t be seen on the right side of the fabric at that point, but they will be visible from the back side of the fabric.

Regardless of the type of thread or the style of weave, these are the basic steps. There’s going to be some overlapping of threads and some ends that poke through to the reverse side. For a very fine weave using very fine threads, the overlap may indeed be invisible to the naked eye, from the right side at least. The Shroud of Turin, however, is not a fabric woven with what would be considered fine thread by today’s standards.

Front and back images (original source here, pages 4-5) showing the thread and weave pattern of the Shroud of Turin. Please note that individual threads are very easily visible at 1:1 magnification (that is, with no magnification at all) and it would be very obvious if any of those threads were overlapping or doubled up as would be necessary for the French reweaving technique, or if any of the broken ends had been pushed through to the reverse side.

Does that make sense, Jabba? French reweaving is invisible only in the sense that it is less visible than other methods of repairing woven fabric.
Tomboy,
- Thanks. What you're saying sounds right, and like Mr. Ehrlich was overstating his case...
- What are your thoughts on the claims of others re past tampering with that corner? You've probably told me already, but I can't remember.
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