Making a wooden wheel using traditional hand tools

Use #ToolTuesday to follow along with every step of the process on our social media channels @CobbandCoMuseum

In past generations, people turned wooden logs from the forest into the everyday items they needed. Homes, furniture and tools were crafted by hand. Tradespeople such as carpenters, cabinet makers and coopers all used specialised woodworking tools. Those who made wooden wheels were known as wheelwrights.

During the Industrial Revolution, many trade skills were replaced by powered machinery in factories, but traditional ‘handmade’ methods were still used in small towns and villages into the twentieth century.

Andrew MacDonald, Factory Supervisor Cobb+Co Museum, took on the challenge to make a wooden wheel using only hand tools. Visit the display to see the process and the tools used.

[donataspimpasas]

No dust, no machine noise, beautiful

[Jetty-ge]

Absolutely fascinating watching this. It speaks to the Soul. I hope this lost art never dies.

[hugochavez]

Absolutely beautiful. I never knew how much I needed to see this.

[SusiesRepeat]

Bravo, so interesting to see wheel made with hand tools.

[Uswesi]

Absolutely, performance far beyond description

[Dressfortheslide]

Calming and relaxing! What an awesome video! And it’s so awesome to think of how that was high tech in its time!

[YuriIdrisov]

This is so impressive! Guess it comes with experience, but knowing that certain operations could easily crack the wood, the wood itself could happen to have imperfections, and any sizing mistake essentially means a restart of working on that piece - this is even more thrilling to watch.

[peterbalazs]

Thanks for putting in the effort and sharing, great little video!

[Heyblomharvest]

I have a lot of these tools and would love to use them !! We have become so impatient in this day and age that we no longer appreciate the simple things and traditional methods/ arts

[spacemonkey]

What an awesome video. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. I'll pass this around.

[aydenroberts]

That’s so fantastic to watch! Very informative

[roxanarivero]

Thank you so much for that beautiful craft. It is a blessing that still remain men like you. You are a genius

[Bewefau]

But I'd like to see the easier and using modern tools now :)

[Maza]

I've wondered how this was done for many years

[nxsmusique]

What happens if the metal ring is too small or too big? Do you make adjustments to the spokes?

[Polymath]

Form cutting the log to full wheel manufacture how many hours were put into it

[Bewefau]

How the hell does that damn thing break if you put a steel band around it o, 0