Grooves in Great Wheel Rims

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PatB

Well-known member
I'd like to know how the grooves in these great wheel (a large spinning wheel) rims were made. Some of these were likely made in the first quarter of the 1800s. Some of the rims are one piece and others are made from 2 pieces with especially fine finger-joiningimage0.jpegimage1.jpeg. I'm sure there are several ways in which these could be made and would like to know all the options.
 
Thanks! Now to look up what a scratch stock is. Several of these wheels are from the same shop and the groove pattern is different for all of them.
 
Cherrybrook said:
They probably cut the profile with a hand plane prior to bending the wood into the shape.
Click to expand...
Thanks much! So, the piece of (assuming riven white oak) was planed and then the grooves were placed using the scratch stock (the scratch stock explains why the groove patterns are different). The book, Foxfire 2, didn't go into the rims in much detail but did say the rim were placed in a mold and then left to dry in shape.

I'm studying how these Southern wheels were made and why they were usually made/engineered so differently from the Northern great wheels.

Often the spinning wheel makers made Windsor chairs, too, so perhaps the wheels can tell us more about the chair makers.
 
There's an excellent article by Martha Katz-Hyman on a spinning wheel maker in The Chronical, volume 67, March 2014. I have a signed great wheel by the same maker, William Fitz, which is one of 3 known great wheels that he made and signed. I'm searching for a link between him and some other wheels I have, to include the drive wheels shown in the 2nd photo of the original post.

A signed Windsor chair by him would be a wonderful find.
 
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