Great wheel building plans???

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I am in a highschool wood shop class and am trying to find Great wheel building plans, and measured drawings, if possible. As a 17 yr old Alaskan, I have enjoyed this magazine for many years and will continue to do so in the future

-- S. Gail Hightower (oaklark@hotmail.com), August 27, 2000

Answers

Master Hightower, Check with the local libary and review the Foxfire Books. In Volume Number two (2) you will find a complete history and plans to make a dream wheel. I do hope this will become an heirloom and not a dream. Keep us posted of progress. JR

-- JR (jr3star@earthlink.net), August 27, 2000.

I"m sorry but what is a great wheel ?

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), August 27, 2000.

For Patty and others, a great wheel is a large spinning wheel, also called a wool wheel or a walking wheel. It is powered by the spinner's hand, usually the right, while she manipulates the fiber mass with her left hand. It predates the treadle wheels by several hundred years. Supposedly, it developed from the Charka wheel-the type Ben Kingsley spun on in GHANDI-and as it progressed to the west, the machine was mounted on a taller bench to accommodate spinning in a standing rather than kneeling position. It appeared in Europe in around 900 A.D. while the treadle wheel wasn't developed for common use until around the 1500's. For more information on great wheels and their use, try to locate a copy of Legacy of the Great Wheel. It's out of print now but spinning guilds in your area might have a copy. I have 2 and both spin like champs. I guess you figured out pretty quickly I'm a spinner.

And Gail, you have set yourself a real challenge. Do you have a spinner in your family or just a bunch who want to try?

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), August 27, 2000.


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