The Wheelwright's Shop

I enjoyed this book as it gives a look at a 19th century wheel and cart building business. The author writes clearly and I was kept fascinated at how wheels and carts were made fully by hand. The craftsmanship needed was impressive. A good read.

This is about my favorite book in the world. The author paints a wistfull and heart-felt picture of a world, which is, sadly, almost gone. He was the last of a family of English farm-cart and wagon builders, who's craft was the high-end of traditional technical woodworking. This book is beautifully written-both on the sentence level, and in it's loving descriptions of human skill and practical knowledge. I have been a fulltime professional woodworker and student of traditional woodworking for more than thirty years, and this book, more than any other, has helped me understand the connection between what I do, and who I am.

A very enjoyable read that allows the reader a peek into an era when people "made things" from start to finish and took pride in their craft. There's also a good bit of information on traditional woodworking and artisanship in general. I highly recommend the book.

If you wanted to sit down with a wheelwright from a couple hundred years ago and keep your mouth shut and listen to every bit of wisdom he had to impart ... that's what this book is about. Read (listen) to non-rocket science about what makes a wheel work and how to either make or not make dumb mistakes.Valuable information about general wood working that applies not only to wheels.Or if you're a history buff, how wooden wheels once fit into everyday life.

I found this book to be a wonderful and informative treatise, both as a student and as an amateur woodworker. Sturt's narrative is a measured blend of documentary and moral argument, which is of equal or greater importance now, as when it was first published in 1923. In it, he offers a first-hand account of the historic, geographic, and human context concerning the artisan-producer within the tradition of medieval wood and iron work. I found three main themes within Sturt's work that were particularly pleasing to myself, and which I found relevant to my search for meaning. Firstly, he emphasizes the relationships that arose from the close interactions of a local market, of a close-knit group of workers, and of an artist and his/her medium. Secondly, he rightfully condemns the waste and destruction associated with the Industrial Revolution, while omitting a lament over the changes in the means of production. And lastly, he offers an example of the effectiveness, connectivity, and ingenuity that arises from the intimate interrelationships between workers and their tasks through their tools, between producers and consumers through their products, and between people and their community through a sense of place and a sense of purpose.