The exhibition of the Nizhny Lomov Museum of Local Lore houses a kochedyk. This tool was used for weaving using birch bark and bast from young linden trees. It is shaped like an awl or a curved flat claw. A kochedyk was used to widen the gap between the fibers in order to pass a new loop through it and increase the weave density.

This item was widely used throughout the country. As a result, different variations of its name appeared, such as kochadyk, kochetyg, kodochig, kotochik, kolochik, kochetok, kostyg, bast owl, fid, and others. Its diminutive forms included kochedyzhok, kochetyzhok, kochedychek, and kochedychok. Craftsmen used this tool to weave bast products and to remove bast from tree trunks. It was made of wood, metal, or split animal bones. It was one of the oldest and most widespread tools.

The most popular woven product in Russia was bast shoes. These were widely used in rural areas until the 1930s. They were made of bast, bark, or hemp. For durability, the soles were braided with vine, bast, or rope, or sewn with leather. A kochedyk was used during the later stages of making bast shoes. It was applied to lift the woven loops and insert the ends of bast into them.

A two-layered bast shoe was stronger. When the outer layer wore out so badly that the shoes became uncomfortable to wear, it could be temporarily restored by using a kochedyk to replace worn-out strips with new ones. Peasants had a name for this process — “picking up, ” but it was believed that only poor people who could not afford new bast shoes resorted to “picking up”.

People used to come up with jokes and proverbs about the kochedyk. When someone was unwilling to leave the place where they lived, people would say about such a person,