(Nov 1, 2008) I have now in my hands a book describing the "invisible reweaving technique" titled "The Frenway System of French Reweaving". It was "privately printed and published" in 1951 by the Fabricon Company, Chicago, Illinois. The introduction begins in a very favorable way to anyone looking for a new career . It reads:
Although an intense search has been going on during the last several years for job opportunities, a very satisfying occupation, FRENCH INVISIBLE REWEAVING, has been overlooked. In a sense, this is surprising because the occupation does not require great strength or unusual physical attractiveness, does not require expensive office space or elaborate equipment, and does not demand a special knack for dealing with people. All that is necessary is sufficient intelligence to understand simple instructions, normal eye-sight -- with or without glasses, and the patience to learn the art and to practice it to perfection.
It goes on in describing the reasons this technique is not so well known and practice:
Probably the reason this art of reweaving has gone relatively unnoticed is the great secrecy which has heretofore kept all but a few people in the world in ignorance of the techniques involved. These secrets have been closely guarded and handed down from generation to generation to a select few. The only exceptions were people who paid huge sums in order to receive knowledge of the art. Every novice reweaver had to spend years as an apprentice.
Sue Benford and Joe Marino, the authors of the theory of the invisible reweaving of the sample used for radiocarbon dating, should have quoted this text! Some textile experts have stood by the statement that "invisible reweaving" does not really exist since any reweaving always leave some trace. Looking at some of the results shown in this book, it is not certain.
Yet, reading the description of the techniques in this book, it is not clear that the reweaving is invisible on the reverse side. The threads that are added are not joined to the threads of the cloth. They are tuck underneath so that their ends could appear on the reverse side.
Actually, perhaps even the trace of the reweaving is gone entirely with the radiocarbon sample that was cut.
I end this post by quoting one last paragraph of the introduction of "The Frenway System of French Reweaving":
There is considerable satisfaction in taking a beautiful cloth garment, table cover, or something else of woven material which has been ruined by accident, carelessness, or wear, and restoring it to its original attractiveness and durability. This is not mere sewing or mending. This is the art of reweaving -- replacing by hand the INDIVIDUAL threads that have been damaged, following the same weave as the machine or hand-weavers that produced the original cloth. The occupation never becomes monotonous because the art of textile-weaving has, through the ages, created an inestimable variety of patterns by means of variations in weaving patterns, colors, and thread sizes.
(October 13, 2008) The theory that the Shroud radiocarbon dating sample was part of an (invisible) reweaved patch is not without merit. There is one aspect of this theory that I have yet to convince myself: how invisible can it be done? Interestingly, Barrie Schwortz kindly published the front page of a book claiming just that: a technique to do invisible reweaving (The Frenway System). It would be much interesting if someone would web-publish a summary of the technique and if someone could do a demonstration of this technique on a piece of cloth that would be a clear proof that this is possible. Or I will order the book and try this out myself! Strangely, I have tried to find French web pages on this technique, and nothing came out. It appears that the French system is not available in French but mostly in English.
(Sept 27, 2008) In the Spring of 1902, a series of French letters was published in the French Revue Scientifique about the Shroud. The protagonists were Paul Vignon, Yves Delage, Charles Richet and Maurice Vernes. The exchange of letters were fueled by the recent 1898 Pia's photograph of the Shroud and the Vignon and Delage analysis of it. The late Dominique Autié made the letters available on the web via his blog. Unfortunately, M. Autié left this world in May 2008. But his beautiful exposition of these letters is still available. The letters are in French, but Google translate can help you out if you cannot read French. The letters are very instructive. In particular, the one by Yves Delage that summarizes the main raisons the Shroud appears authentic.
(Sept 13, 2008) I have written a short essay about some particular wounds in the back of the man of the Shroud. The idea to write it came up to me when Barrie Schwortz (see Barrie's web site) provided the close up photograph you will find in that essay. It shows that for such particular wounds, it is very hard to imagine a forger at work.
(August 21, 2008) The Ohio Shroud conference ended on August 17, 2008. Unfortunately, I could not attend the conference. On the other hand, soon, I hope to report and comment some of the papers that were presented. In particular, the paper by Sue Benford and Joe Marino regarding a possible reweaving of the Shroud where the C-14 radiocarbon dating sample was taken in 1987. Meanwhile, the reader can access audio presentations of the papers at Shrouduniversity.com.
(Feb 29, 2008) A very high definition photograph of the Shroud has recently been done. It is reported to be over 12 billion pixels, which is probably over 50GB in size. It was done by taking almost 1,300 individual photographs over the entire Shroud. I think this is very good news! The company HAL9000 has done the technical work. I have always been a promoter of such a photograph and I am happy to see that it was finally done. Let see how this photograph, or photographs, will be made available to Shroud researchers. A lot of new and interesting results will come out by analyzing these photographs. More details can be seen at Shroud of Turin Gets High-Def Scrutiny.
(Feb 25, 2008) It is being reported in the press that Christopher Ramsey, the director of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, one of the three laboratories that radiocarbon dated the Shroud in 1988, is reconsidering the results of the 1988 dating based on new hypothesis. A documentary by David Rolfe to be shown during Easter will cover this story. Christopher Ramsey, though, does not think the new hypothesis will substantially change the 1988 radiocarbon dating.
I came across the following 58 minutes Shroud video (in French) available on the web. It was produced in 1978 by Raymond Beaugrand-Champagne. Even if you do not understand French, it contains many interesting interviews, among them Ian Wilson, Baïma-Bollone, Hary Gove in his lab discussing carbon-14 dating, Walter McCrone, Max Frei, John Jackson, etc. There is in particular two segments of an interview with the late cardinal Ballestrero. He mentions, in Italian, that many experts have pointed out to him that the Carbon-14 dating would be unreliable for the Shroud. This is stated well before the Shroud carbon dating of 1988. I invite you to listen to it. It is very instructive. (I believe you can order a DVD version from Raymond Beaugrand-Champagne for 15$CND.)
Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, the textile expert and supervisor of the 2002 major restoration of the Shroud, recently wrote an informative article related to the C14 radiocarbon dating. The article argues against the reweaving hypothesis proposed by Sue Benford and Joseph Marino, but I think that its most important aspect is her definitive statement that the radiocarbon dating of 1988 is very doubtful given the amount of greasy material readily visible at the sample area . The article can be found on Barrie Schwortz's website: The Invisible Mending of the Shroud, the Theory and the Reality, by Mechthild Flury-Lemberg, 2007. I think the major positive point of this article is very informative and very often forgotten or never mentioned: the location of the linen sample for the 1988 C14 radiocarbon dating is heavily contaminated, and this can be readily seen with the naked eye. Flury-Lemberg reports that the location shows thread stuck together. I quote from her article:
"The presence of the greasy dirt deposit at the removal site alone would be sufficient to demonstrate the uselessness of the carbon-14 method, ..." (The emphases are from the article.)
I am sure that Flury-Lemberg did not mean that the C14 radiocarbon method is useless, but rather that for the sample location chosen in 1988 on the Shroud, the method becomes useless. This has been debated for many years, and it comes back again and again: a much better sampling should have been done. I always thought that this was the primary reason to doubt the 1988 radiocarbon dating. When I saw the Shroud in 1998 in the Turin cathedral, from a distance of around two meters, the coloration of the corners were brownish, indeed looking greasy and dirty. If only the Turin authorities in charge of the Shroud would release high resolution digital pictures of the area where the sample was taken, this would dissipate many misunderstandings. And definitely, a second radiocarbon dating is needed to correct the lack of proper sampling in the first dating.
(May 2007) A Souvenir from the Cluny Museum in Paris.
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