haha these photos have been in the drafts for a few days now
anyway
I did most of my shuttle shaping by hand but I wanted the profile a little more pronounced than I was achieving with my dubiously sharp carving tools and then I remembered the dremel and carbide bits. there are some little dings here and there but I got a nice, even, narrow bevel on the lower edge where it matters, and it does a great job beating the weft in straight and square. the shuttle is cut from the exact same piece of wood as the base, I just didn't apply the ebonizing solution to it, thought it'd be nice to see the dramatic contrast.
I'm about halfway through the warp now and. let's say there's a learning curve, to the tensioning. I suspect less tension all around will give me more of an even weave, but ultimately the goal is to use this for tablet weaving, which is warp-faced by design, so this answer perhaps does not much matter as long as I can figure out consistency.
