Resources for Medieval Era Enthusiasts

22 Sep

Medieval Wheels

Posted on 2009 under Medieval Wheelwright | 2 Comments

I spent the weekend building a Medievalish cart for my grandson – turns 7 next week. Lots of fun for him to push around the property, helping Grandma with her gardening chores. In the process, I became quite curious about how they would have built such a thing back-in-the-day. Of particular curiousity was the means of constructing the wheel. Now mine was simply assembling some 1 x 8s to make a solid wheel. However, a proper wheel would have been made with a hub, felloes (spokes) and a rim. How did they do that in Medieval days? I spent quite a bit of effort trying to find a website that give some insight into hand-made wheels – after several hours I had almost given up! But being the tenacious web hound that I am, I found an extremely interesting video from the 1930s that showed a craftsman constructing the hub, cutting the felloes, and attaching the rim pieces. While not Medieval, I would think that the craft of making a wooden wagon wheel was not much different. So, for those of you who have also wondered about the wheelwright’s profession, here you go! From SVT, here is the wheelwright at work. Oh – I have to forewarn you, its in Swedish, so if you are like me and don’t speak a word of Swedish, just enjoy the film. I found it a fascinating view!

2 Comments so far »

  1. by Goedjn, on March 18 2011 @ 11:14 am

     

    My understanding is that there were two different types of wheel, depending on how heavy what you were hauling was, and what century you were in. The biggest difference between a medieval spoked wheel and a modern one is that the medieval ones didn’t have a one piece metal tire, heated and then shrunk tight, but rather a bunch of metal “shoes” that bound the sections of the rim together. For extremely heavy loads, a solid wheel was constructed by cutting a plank in half, splitting one half lengthwise,
    and joining the narrow planks on either side of the wider center plank, by cutting two curved dovetail notches across the face of all three planks and driving splines into them. (and, I think, pegging the joint) I don’t know why they were always three planks, but that’s apparently the case.

  2. by Scott, on March 18 2011 @ 9:36 pm

     

    That’s an interesting observation. I think we’ve all seen the two different style of wheels – with spokes and with planks – but I guess I never realized the purpose of the two styles. Your explanation does makes sense. Thanks for your input!

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About The Author

Scott Berry is a former high school history teacher. He is the founder and president of Medieval Living, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity which supports homeschooling throughout New Mexico. He is also an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), where he participates in light weapons (rapier) and archery. He was a historian for the United States Air Force from 1981 to 1993.