Making a Wagon Wheel - Writers Forum

Savannah · 06-24-2004, 06:55 AM

In my novel, a character's wagon wheel gets broken and his traveling is delayed while he makes a new one. Problem is, I have no idea how to even vaguely describe the task of making a new wooden wagon wheel, or what tools would be needed to do the job. The setting is fantasy-ish, not modern, but he'll be carrying a saw with him, and there are trees around in the woods he gets detoured in. Does anyone know where I can find out how a wooden wheel is made? Doing a Google search of it didn't help much.

Spudley · 06-24-2004, 09:10 AM

There's two types of wheel you could be thinking of here.

One is a simple rough block of wood cut to a circle, and with a hole in the centre. They're pretty simple to make if you've got a suitable few sharp implements handy. Not very practical though - they don't last long; and they can't be made very large either - effectively limited to the size of the pieces of wood you can get hold of. These wheels are far better if you use more than one layer of wood, aligned so the grains run across each other, which makes them a lot more durable. That also allows you to make them bigger by joining several planks, though that brings your durability right down again.

He'll need more than a saw. A hand axe would be useful, or something similar that can be used to carve the rounded edge, and hammer and nails too. A chisel would be useful for making the central hole. It'll still take him a fair amount of time if he's not practiced at it, though.

The other type is the real wagon wheel - hub, spokes, rim, and so on. They can vary in complexity, but the bottom line is that they are made by skilled craftsman.

Even for the roughly made ones, you need to be fairly accurate with your measurements and angles, or your spokes won't fit into rim.
The hub is carved from a single block of wood, and the rim is made by bending several pieces of wood and laminating them together for strength. You also need an iron rim fitted in order to keep it in shape. The iron rim is usually fitted while hot, so that it cools and shrinks into a snug fit. Without it the bent wooden rim will slowly unbend until your wheel suddenly falls apart.

Making one of these outside of a workshop or without at least having a full toolkit would be a tall order.

More practically, have you considered the posibility of your character repairing the broken wheel rather than making a whole new one? What happens to the wheel that it is completely unrepairable? These days we tend to throw things out if they're broken, but that wasn't always the case, and a traveller with a broken wheel would amost certainly have tried to repair it first.

Unless the damage is catastrophic, the skills, materials and time required to repair it would be significantly less than to make a new one. The repairs may be rough and ready, but he could probably get back on the road again fairly quickly.

Savannah · 06-25-2004, 05:45 AM

Erk... okay, so maybe he won't make an entirely new wheel.

Being that he's traveling in a thick carpet of snow, my plan was for the wood to be made soft by the wetness, then for the outside of the wheel to be cracked open when it runs into a rock. If this happens, maybe he'd just need to make a new outside wheel, and keep the undamaged rim and spokes? Or, one of the spokes could break, and he'd just have to make a new spoke.

He isn't a main character, just someone the two main characters meet in the woods and stay with for a couple of days until he gets on the move again, so I'd prefer that he doesn't have to spend THAT much time fixing his wagon-- preferably two to three days.

Spudley · 06-25-2004, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savannah

my plan was for the wood to be made soft by the wetness, then for the outside of the wheel to be cracked open when it runs into a rock.

"I think my wheel is broken," he spoke softly.

hehehe. Sorry. Off-topic, but that's one of my favorite puns.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...

Yes, I think running repairs would be a better bet. Even with fairly limited tools, he could probably get it sorted out in a couple of days.

I think damage to the spokes would be a good bet... perhaps he drives too close to a protruding rock and it takes out four or five spokes from his wheel? Just losing one spoke wouldn't be enough - he would probably just carry on, although he'd have to go carefully - but four or five would make the wheel unusable, so he'd have to stop till he'd sorted it out.

Savannah · 06-25-2004, 12:22 PM

Alright; I'm gonna go with the knocked-out spokes.

Thanks a bunch! I didn't think anyone would response to this.

Spudley · 06-25-2004, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savannah

Alright; I'm gonna go with the knocked-out spokes.

Thanks a bunch! I didn't think anyone would response to this.

It's a pleasure

Years ago I got a chance to visit a wheelwright's workshop on a school trip. I'd almost forgotten it, but your question just brought all the memories flooding back.

It was just a show workshop, of course, but he was making real wheels, and he did a great job of showing us how they were put together. They also had a blacksmith there, and a cooper (barrel maker), and a handful of other "old fashioned" type crafts. Fascinating stuff.

I'm not really into fantasy these days, but I was then, and it really fired my imagination.