What is the best beginner floor loom?

The Schacht Baby Wolf is the best first floor loom for most weavers who have decided they want a real weaving studio. It is a 26-inch, 4-shaft jack loom that folds and fits through a standard doorway, costs around $1,500 new, and has the largest owner community and tutorial ecosystem of any mid-range floor loom in North America. The Louet David is the right alternative if you prefer the European back-hinged treadle feel, slightly lower footprint, or want to save $200 to $300 on the new price.

How wide does a floor loom need to be?

For scarves and most apparel yardage, 20 to 24 inches is enough. For kitchen towels and standard cloth, 24 to 26 inches is the practical minimum that avoids finishing seams on most projects. For blankets and wide fabric in a single pass, you need 45 to 60 inches or more. Most weavers find the 24 to 32 inch range covers 90 percent of what they want to make, and the Baby Wolf at 26 inches or the Louet David at 26 inches covers nearly all of it.

Is 4-shaft enough or do I need 8 shafts?

Four-shaft weaving covers the vast majority of traditional cloth structures: plain weave, balanced and warp-faced twills, many twill variations, huck lace, M's and O's, waffle weave, rosepath, and dozens of other structures documented in Ashenhurst and Worst's classic pattern books. Eight shafts open up more complex structures like networked twills, some shaft-switching patterns, and elaborate lace. Most weavers weave for years on 4 shafts before running into its limits. The Baby Wolf, Wolf Pup, and David all start at 4 shafts and can upgrade to 8.

What is the difference between a jack loom and a counterbalance loom?

A jack loom lifts each shaft independently: when you press a treadle, the tied shafts rise, and all other shafts stay neutral. This makes uneven tie-ups easy (tie 1 shaft alone, tie 3 shafts together) and is forgiving for unbalanced threading. A counterbalance loom moves shafts in pairs: when one shaft rises, its counterbalanced partner falls. This makes clean, even sheds for balanced structures like plain weave, twills, and overshot, but requires even threadings. Most modern American floor looms (Baby Wolf, Wolf Pup, Mighty Wolf) are jack looms. Most counterbalance looms are vintage Scandinavian or reproduction models.

How much space does a floor loom require?

A Schacht Baby Wolf at 4-shaft in weaving position occupies roughly 32 inches wide by 48 inches deep, with 24 to 30 inches of seating clearance behind the bench. Total floor space needed: about 5 by 6 feet of dedicated area to sit and weave comfortably. The Wolf Pup is smaller and fits in tighter spaces. The Louet David is compact in depth. For exact footprints by model with assembly clearance, the space planning guide covers every reviewed loom.

What is the Schacht Baby Wolf good for?

The Baby Wolf is the right loom for weavers who want real floor-loom capability in a smaller package. It weaves 26 inches wide at 4 or 8 shafts, folds to 12 inches deep for moving through doorways or storing between projects, and handles every yarn from fine laceweight at 30+ EPI to chunky wools at 4 EPI. It is not the loom for blanket yardage in a single pass (you need a wider loom for that) or for someone who wants to start small and upgrade later (the Wolf Pup is a better stepping stone loom). For most weavers who want one serious floor loom that can do almost everything, it is the right answer.

How much does a new floor loom cost?

Entry floor looms (Ashford Table Loom 4-shaft with stand) start around $700 to $900. Mid-range floor looms (Schacht Baby Wolf, Louet David) are $1,400 to $1,900 new. High-end production looms (Schacht Mighty Wolf, Leclerc Nilus II at wider widths, full-size Macomber) run $2,500 to $5,000 or more. A complete used Baby Wolf or Louet David in good condition typically costs $400 to $750 on the second-hand market, which is where most weavers buying their first serious floor loom should look.

Can a floor loom fit in a small apartment?

A folding jack loom like the Baby Wolf or Wolf Pup can fit in a small apartment: it weaves in a space about 5 by 6 feet and folds to a 12-inch footprint for storage against a wall. The challenge is not the loom itself but the space the routine around it demands: you need 6 to 8 feet in one direction for warping (or a warping board on a wall), and the beater makes a percussive sound on each beat that carries through shared walls. Many apartment weavers use table looms or rigid heddle looms instead. If you have your own unit with a dedicated room, a folding floor loom works.

Best Floor Looms: Picks for Every Budget and Studio Size

The best floor loom for most weavers moving up from a rigid heddle is the Schacht Baby Wolf: a 4-shaft loom that weaves 26 inches wide, folds to 12 inches for storage, and costs around $1,500 new. The Louet David is the value alternative at $100 to $300 less with a European treadle feel.

The Baby Wolf also has the most comprehensive owner community of any mid-range floor loom in the US, and used examples run $400 to $700. These two looms have been the standard mid-range choices for thirty years because they are the right tools for what most weavers want to make.

Line drawing of a simple treadle floor loom showing the major structural components including uprights, breast beam, back beam, harnesses, treadles, and beater — A floor loom's structure is the same across every 4-shaft design: uprights holding the harnesses, a beater with a reed, treadles connected to harnesses by tie-up cords or Texsolv pegs, a warp beam at the back, and a cloth beam at the front. Understanding the structure helps you evaluate what each loom does differently. *Photo: Pearson Scott Foresman via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.*

What makes a floor loom worth buying?

Floor looms solve a problem that rigid heddle looms cannot: pattern complexity. A rigid heddle makes plain weave, and with extra tools, some simple float patterns. A floor loom makes twills, huck lace, waffle weave, overshot, crackle, summer and winter, and anything else in a 4-shaft pattern book, which is most of the Western weaving tradition. If you want to weave textured cloth, structured lace, or anything other than plain weave scarves and towels, a floor loom is what you need.

The trade is space, cost, and setup time. A floor loom takes up a full corner of a room. A new mid-range loom costs $1,400 to $1,900. Threading 4 shafts takes an afternoon. For weavers who know they want that complexity, the trade is worth it the first time they finish a twill towel or a lace shawl that could not have come off a rigid heddle.

The comparison table

All prices verified June 2026 at manufacturer or major retailer sites. Used prices from Ravelry and guild sale averages.

Loom	Type	Weaving width	Shafts	New price	Used (good cond.)	Folds
Schacht Wolf Pup	Jack (floor)	20”	4 (upgradeable to 8)	~$1,250	$350–$600	Yes
Schacht Baby Wolf	Jack (floor)	26”	4 (upgradeable to 8)	~$1,500	$450–$750	Yes
Louet David III	Jack (floor)	26”	4 (upgradeable to 8)	~$1,650	$400–$700	No
Ashford Table Loom	Table (with stand)	16” or 24”	4 or 8	$700–$900	$250–$450	Partially
Schacht Mighty Wolf	Jack (floor)	36”	4 (upgradeable to 8)	~$2,200	$700–$1,100	No
Macomber (vintage)	Jack (floor)	varies	4–16	Out of production	$400–$900	No

Range chart of floor loom price bands from used low to new street price: the Ashford Table Loom is cheapest at $250 to $900, the Baby Wolf and Louet David sit mid-range near $1,500, and the Schacht Mighty Wolf spans the widest band at $700 to $2,200 — Each bar spans what you would pay for that loom used at the low end to new at the high end, drawn from the comparison table above. The Baby Wolf and Louet David overlap heavily in the mid-range, while the Ashford Table Loom is the only sub-$1,000 path into 4-shaft weaving. *Wool Hall original diagram.*

The picks by buyer

Best for most weavers: Schacht Baby Wolf. The Baby Wolf is 26 inches wide, 4-shaft with an 8-shaft upgrade path, and it folds to move through any standard doorway. The construction is Colorado maple with steel tie-up cords; it runs quietly and will outlast the weaver who buys it. The owner community (Ravelry’s Baby Wolf group alone has thousands of members) means that every pattern question and technique problem has been answered by someone who owns the same loom. If you buy one floor loom and keep it for life, this is the loom. See the full Schacht Baby Wolf review for specs, shaft options, and what owners report after years of use.

Best value: Louet David III. The Louet David costs $100 to $300 less than the Baby Wolf new and produces cloth of identical quality. The differences that justify the price gap: the Baby Wolf folds and the David does not; the Baby Wolf has a slightly wider weaving community; the David has the European back-hinged treadle that many weavers find smoother and more ergonomic. On the used market, the two are priced within $50 to $100 of each other. For the full comparison, the Baby Wolf vs Louet David article covers the ergonomic differences in detail. The full Louet David review covers specs.

Best narrow (first floor loom with upgrade path): Schacht Wolf Pup. The Wolf Pup weaves 20 inches wide instead of the Baby Wolf’s 26. That sounds like a compromise, but for weavers who are not sure they need 26 inches of width or who have limited studio space, the Wolf Pup is the right tool. It folds, has the same shaft upgrade path to 8, and costs $200 to $300 less than the Baby Wolf. The Baby Wolf vs Wolf Pup comparison covers who needs each width.

Best for apartment or minimal space: Ashford Table Loom 4-shaft with stand. The Ashford Table Loom is a genuine 4-shaft loom in a compact package. On its stand it occupies roughly the same footprint as a sewing machine. It does not have treadles; you change shafts by hand lever. This makes it slower for production weaving but completely viable for sampling and for weavers who want 4-shaft capability without a room-sized commitment. At $700 to $900 new with the stand, it is also the lowest-cost entry into 4-shaft weaving.

Best wide: Schacht Mighty Wolf. The Mighty Wolf weaves 36 inches wide, which opens blanket panels and apparel fabric that would require two or three passes on a Baby Wolf. It costs significantly more new ($2,200+) and does not fold. If width is the constraint and you have the room, the Mighty Wolf is the right answer. Most weavers who start on a Baby Wolf and eventually need more width buy a Mighty Wolf rather than selling the Baby Wolf, which is its own testament to how long these looms last.

Detailed view of warp threads on a loom showing the threading pattern through heddles and the parallel arrangement of warp ends under tension — A well-threaded warp is the foundation of every project on a floor loom. The parallel threads running from back beam to front, each one threaded through its own heddle eye and dent in the reed, create the structure that the treadles rearrange with each shed change. Threading takes an afternoon; the warp stays on for weeks or months. *Photo: Mohammad Hassan Taheri via Unsplash. Unsplash License.*

Is 4 shafts enough, or do you need 8?

Four shafts are enough for most weavers. Every loom in this guide starts at 4 shafts and can upgrade to 8, which is the right default.

Four-shaft weaving is not a limitation for most weavers. The standard 4-shaft structure library covers plain weave, all twill families, huck lace, M’s and O’s, waffle weave, overshot, honeycomb, crackle, and most of what fills a traditional pattern book. Weavers work within 4 shafts for years before running into the boundaries.

Eight shafts allow networked drafts, more complex twill progressions, and some lace and deflected structures that are difficult or impossible on 4 shafts. If you know you want to weave networked twills (which produce painterly diagonal gradients in cloth), 8 shafts are worth the upgrade cost. Most weavers do not know this yet when buying their first floor loom.

The upgrade path on both the Baby Wolf and the David means you do not have to decide today. Buy 4 shafts, weave for a year or two, and add 4 more when you hit 4-shaft’s limits.

What is the difference between a jack and counterbalance loom?

A jack loom lifts each shaft independently; a counterbalance loom moves shafts in opposing pairs. Most modern American and Canadian floor looms, including every model in this guide, are jack looms: each shaft rises on its own when its treadle is pressed, and all other shafts stay neutral at rest. This makes uneven tie-ups easy and is forgiving of slightly uneven threading.

Counterbalance looms move shafts in opposing pairs: when shaft 1 rises, shaft 2 falls. This produces a cleaner shed for balanced threadings and is why weavers who do a lot of plain weave or traditional overshot sometimes prefer them. Most counterbalance looms available today are vintage Scandinavian looms, reproduction models from European makers, or the Gilmore family. They require a different threading and tie-up approach than jack looms.

If you are new to floor looms, start with a jack loom. The flexibility is useful while you are learning what structures you want to weave.

Weaving loom structure showing the frame, warp beam, breast beam, and heddle positions of a floor loom — The loom's frame holds everything under tension. The warp beam at the back pays out yarn; the breast beam at the front supports the advancing cloth; the heddles in between sort the warp threads into sheds. On a jack loom, pressing a treadle lifts selected heddle frames while the others remain at rest. *Photo: Frank Müller (fcm) via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 3.0.*

What does a floor loom really cost beyond the loom?

A floor loom’s sticker price is not the total cost of ownership. Plan for $300 to $700 in accessories on top of the loom. Add to the new loom price:

Bench: $150 to $400 new. Many looms do not include one. A dedicated weaving bench with adjustable height is important for correct posture and treadling.
Boat shuttles: $15 to $40 each. You will want 3 to 6 for multi-color work.
Temple: $30 to $80. Keeps the cloth at full warp width as you weave. Worth buying early.
Lease sticks: $20 to $40 per pair. Some looms include them.
Warping board or mill: $60 to $200. A separate warping board is faster than using the loom’s back beam for all warps.
Extra reeds: $30 to $100 each. Your loom ships with one reed; plan to buy 2 to 3 more over time.

Total startup cost beyond the loom: $300 to $700 for a properly equipped first floor-loom setup. For full dimensions on where to put the loom in a room, the space planning guide has floor plans for every loom size.

Should you buy a used floor loom?

Yes, for most first-time buyers a used loom is the smart entry. Both the Baby Wolf and the Louet David have been in continuous production for decades. The used market has hundreds of them in circulation at any given time, typically priced at 40 to 60 percent of new retail. A 2005 Baby Wolf in good condition weaves identically to a 2025 model; Schacht supports both with the same replacement parts.

For a weaver who is not yet certain about floor-loom weaving, buying used is a lower-risk entry: if you discover you prefer rigid heddle weaving or spinning, you can sell a used floor loom at close to what you paid. The used loom buying guide covers the inspection checklist and what price to accept.