Is This a Rug Hooking Tool?

“I found this when we were clearing out my great-grandparents' home. It looks like it may be some sort of a rug hooking tool, but I’ve never seen one like this before.” The Newton Falls Public Library staff confessed they had never seen anything like what that patron showed us. The flat tool is made of two pieces of wood connected by a C-shaped piece of flat metal. The pieces slide forward and back, bringing a needle like implement over a guide. There is a metal eye at the top, which we thought might help to guide the fabric.

First we looked at the books The Art of Rug Hooking and Creative Rug Hooking by Anne D. Mather. Since neither had a tool similar to our patron’s, we went online to see if we could find any information.

Searching the words “antique rug tools” we found the website The Rugmaker’s Homestead [www.netw.com/~rafter4/hooked.htm]. This site had information about rugs worked from the back side which may have been made with a tool such as this. Punched or shuttle and speed hooked rugs were made with tools that “were called 'speed hooks' and 'shuttle hooks', even though the tip of the tool is a needle, not a hook.” When we searched for images of “antique wooden punch rug tools”, we found photographs of similar tools. Now that our patron knows about the tool, she will have to decide if she wishes to learn to punch a rug.