Your favorite shuttle?

[carolivy]

Thanks for that Blog name rsmre! She has some neat stuff there. I just may have to see if I can find an Aero shuttle while I'm on vacation and play with it when I get home.

[poeticfairy]

rsmre, now you got me looking for a pencil :oD. I'm wondering if it will wind faster off the shuttle, cause it is rather slow turning and turning the bobbin with 2 little fingers.
Thanks for the site! I love the decopauge she did to the shuttles. Now where are those tin snips . . . :o). I wonder if that is what LaCossette does for the ones she sells?!

[StarrBeth]

My favorites are my David Reed Smith shuttles. I would love to get some more from him. My other go to is the clover. Tried one of the boye metal ones and didn't really like the feel of it in my hand. LOVE the way the DRS shuttle feel in my hand though. I'd really love to get one with the hook on it.

[stashtamer]

Hmmm, favorite shuttle, I'm not certain which that is. The shuttle I use most often (well type of shuttle) is Clover. I have in my collection, original Aero shuttles, a few copies of Aero shuttles, one David Reed Smith shuttle, at least half a dozen of the metal shuttles with bobbins (a couple of those are vintage and others are much more recent), Tatsy shuttle, Boye plastic shuttles (large and small)... the list goes on. But favorite, hmmmmmm. I really do like the original Aero shuttles and some of the copies are OK (too many of the newer Aero types don't have the same tension on the bobbin). I find that with the way I hold the shuttle, I can handle nearly any size of tatting shuttle and I keep the pick/point/hook well out of my way. Basically, I like shuttles.

[Susan B T]

Which ever one I am using or the one that is full of thread for the project I am doing.

I use all my shuttles at different times. I love wood for the feel. I love Aero's for travel, take extra bobbins and have their own hook.
I have large hands so a larger shuttle is easy for me to use, some of the old celluloid or larger so I tend to use them. I like the pumpkin seeds shape plastic ones for the same reason.
I love my sterling ones, even if I cannot use them with white thread. It as to do with my body chemistry, Silver makes my hands black and it will transfer to the white thread. I have two wooden shuttles made by Georgia Seitz and these too are larger and are great for beads.
There is not one that I do not like.

[PattyD]

My favorite shuttles are Clovers. There are really 2 different kinds of Clovers, the tortoise shell and ivory ones are stiffer and have closer tips; the multi colored ones are more flexible and have tips more suited to larger threads. I use the Sew Mates when tatting with beads because there is enough room and they are enough like Clovers to suit me. I only had access to Susan Bates metal shuttles when I started, back in the mists of time, but now I call them Norman Bates. I have a lot of other shuttles for various reasons, but I don't use them.

[tatknot]

poeticfairy, I confess I'm one of those tatters who hates the metal Boye shuttle. That and the Tatsy were the only shuttles available to me when I first learned to tat. The Tatsy was so large that it always made my hands sore from rubbing against my fingers as I passed it over and under the thread. LOVE the amount of thread they can hold, but I hate to tat with them. I had trouble with the metal Boye snagging on my threads and with my thread getting caught between the bobbin and the shuttle. It held very little size 10 thread, too.

While I have a few handmade shuttles that are very nice to tat with, my everyday favorites are the Clover/Susan Bates, the Aero (the REAL one, hate that white imitation!), and the SewMate.

Thanks for asking!

[Lynn]

My all time favorite shuttle is the old Boye plastic post shuttle. The pick is not sharp and does not harm anything it pokes, (including skin) but it is excellent for most joins, except of course for those tiny, almost invisible, no more than a bump joining picots. For those, I use either a crochet hook, a Milward hook, or one of those pen hooks. Just depends on what I happen to pick up first. My second favorite shuttle is the old black and white Milward post shuttle. No pick, but it is a joy to tat with. Unfortunately, both of these shuttles are no longer in production. I recently learned that China is now producing a Boye facsimile, but that it isn't of the same quality.

As far as shuttles that are actually in production and presently procurable, I'd have to say Sewmates. They have about the same balance as my old Boyes. I don't much like the pointy pick. I've taken a file to all of them just to keep from drawing blood! But they hold about as much thread as my Boyes and they have about the same balance. After Sewmates come Clovers. I've taken a file to those too.

One shuttle I would like to try is the Lady Hoare. But I can't see investing in something pricey just for the sake of an experiment, so one day I'm going to take an expired bank card and make myself one. Just for experimental purposes.

I don't care for any kind of shuttle with a built in hook. I have the same problem as Poeticfairy with those. I also don't much care for bobbins. When I drop a shuttle, it doesn't go rolling around loosing all it's thread. (Notice I said when and not if - being a world class klutz.)

I'm glad there are so many different types of shuttles to choose from. We all have different size hands and some of us have physical issues that make one kind of shuttle preferable. No matter what shuttle we use, the point is to tat! Whatever aids in that goal is okay by me.

[xstchntat]

For small projects I like to use clovers, med size projects I like the sewmates, large I like to use tatsys. As to my favorite shuttle it has been a Mother of Pearl one I inherited from my grandma tied with an olderf brass one with engraving on it that also came from her. Now that I am making shuttles I think the one I am working on is my favorite until it is finished then the next one takes its place. It had been a journey learning to make them and I appreciate everyone that has sent me wood and given me hints to make them work. I may have to start an Etsy store when I can sell them if I get too many. I probable will not sell any until I have made some special one to say thank you to the people I feel helped to make it a usable tool to actually use to make tatting and not just to look at. I have some micro carving tools and want to try carving a pretty flower on one or more of them. The desire to creat a beautiful shuttle that really works is something I had not anticipated. When I want to be pretty while tatting I like to use my Abalone shell shuttles.

[IcePrincess]

I haven't yet found a shuttle I hate, to be honest. I favour the bobbin-style ones, mostly working aero, for finer threads my silent tatters are perfect. But when tatting up larger thread it is clover or SewMate - or Tatsy, depending on thread size.