What is the difference between a horizontal and a vertical countermarch?
The horizontal countermarch is the most common and least expensive type in the US. It has upper lamms or jacks, two for each shaft, which sit horizontally in the countermarch box on the top of the loom. The vertical countermarch has a vertical upper lamm for each shaft and is about 8″ taller than the horizontal countermarch. Countermarch looms are tied up after the loom is warped, threaded and the warp is tied to the cloth beam apron. For the horizontal, the tie up cord runs down through the center of the warp to the second, lower, longer set of lamms. On the vertical countermarch, the tie-up cords go across the loom, over pulleys and on down the side of the loom, outside of the loom frame. They use pulleys. Pulley grooves should be deep or covered so that the cords cannot pop out of the pulleys. Both systems work very well.
