YOUR RESPONSES

Wendy Linton (nee Thompson) Garvagh - Feb '08
Hi Davy GeorgeI always said I would look up your web page and at last I have. It is really great and is a credit to you. It is really interesting to read all the comments from people across the world. I haven't seen you for a while and I hope you are keeping well. Hopefully I will maybe see you at Church some Sunday morning when I am down at Mum and Dads. Keep up the good work for many years.

Gary Morrow - June '06
Very good page Uncle Davey George, we are really impressed by your story and it is very interesting.

Sean McConnell - May '06
Its great to see the tradition of making wheels carried on, My Grand Father Peter, my Father Hugh, and Uncle John Mc Connell were wheelwrights there yard was located in Durham Street Off Divis Street in Belfast. My Father was born and raised in Pound Street. I remember I would cross over the waste ground from St Mary's CBS over to my Grandfathers yard. They allowed me to pull on the bellows to heat the rim of the wheels when it was hot enough they put it up on the anvil and welded the metal together with the hammers, slipped the rim around the wheel and when the rim cooled off it would contract and pull everything together. I can still smell that old yard to this very day. I have very fond memories of them days long ago.

Malcolm Barley - March '06
Dear Davey
I am remaking two 2ft diametre wheels from ash that have come from an victorian flower sellers handcart probably the same as molly malone's, the centres are cast iron .
I have a good workshop an all the tools i need but it is the first time i have built wooden wheels . my problem is the seven segments each having two spokes that i have cut on the band saw, how do you make a perfect join ?

Sandy Watson replies on behalf of Davey George : -

Dear Malcolm,
I am writing on behalf of Davey George McCrory whose deteriorating vision makes it impossible for him to respond to you directly via email. DG was impressed when I read him your message about taking on the task of rebuilding the wheels for the Victorian flower seller's cart.
There are a couple of ways to ensure a perfectly clean join in your felloe segments. First, it helps to saw a hair's breath off the end of each felloe before you drill your hole to insert your spiggot. Then, make a template of paper with a centre hole marked and place it over the end of your felloe.
This will ensure your hole and spiggot (1/2" wooden dowl rod placed into a matching drilled hole) is perfectly centred. Use the same template on the corresponding end of the felloe you want to attach it to, so when you drill the matching hole into which the spiggott will finally connect at the end of the next felloe, it will match exactly. Do not join these felloes together yet.

Leave the segments touching, (not inserted) until all fourteen holes and seven spiggotts are ready, then slip each spiggott into place and you will see they will fit together very cleanly. Naturally, fitting an iron hoop around the outer rim (perhaps 1/4 inch thick), will cement the joints even tighter and finish off the wheel in the traditional way.

If you have further trouble with this, please let me know. Where do you live? If you are near Northern Ireland, I'd be happy to chat with you on the telephone and you are welcome to come visit me in my workshop anytime where I can demonstrate and explain further. Good luck with your project.
Sincerely,
David George McCrory
c/o Sandy Watson

Martin Mc Connell, Cleveland, Ohio- Feb '06
My grandfather, peter mc connell, used to make cart wheels in his shop in pound st belfast. this article brought back fond memories. my father hugh mc connell, made a lot of spinning wheels. great story.

Agnes McGill - Jan '06
Well uncle george i once again am going through ur web pages and c there is more added on since the last time.You r a great credit 2 urself and we love listening 2 ur stories. We r looking forward 2 cing u in the second wk of feb where as usual we will enjoy our stay with u.

Carolyn (McCrory) Thornburg - Nov 05
I read this article with great interest. I am a McCrory too. But I live in Kansas, USA. My sister and I visited Ireland late July - early August this year. We have ancestry - our father (McCrory) and mother's (Mann) families almost all from County Antrim, some from County Armagh. I am so disappointed that I did not find this website sooner. Maybe we could have visited. I am shedding tears now from disappointment, yet also with happiness as I read you are a Christian, Davey George McCrory. Its not likely we will meet in this lifetime, so we really must look each other up when we're in heaven with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you or anyone in your family would like to write, I would be very interested in hearing anything you would like to share.

Mrs Coleen Miller nee Beason - November '05
Thank your for this article, I am 64 years old and I remember my dad working with wood he enjoyed whittling out whistles for us and he appreciated the wonders of nature and often walked in the woods to just enjoy and appreciate the Creation that God gave to us.

Dad had a love of learning and a great sense of humor. I can well remember one day when we were in the living room and Dad was reading a newspaper and an updraft came up and caught the chimney soot on fire and Dad was so engrossed in the newspaper he did not notice the fire and my brothers ran to collect water to put out the fire. He passed away but my memories of him will stay with me.

Noel Wright - August '05
Just found out about yer site Davy George and think it's fantastic. Interesting stories & great video. Think the last we spoke was at the Glenarm fair last year but look forward to catching up & maybe you could lite that fiddle up for me sometime. Take Care...

Robin Kirkpatrick - July '05
Need help!
I am the proud owner of a two wheeled horse cart but the wheels are in need of restoration. After reading the article about DG it is a job for a professional, not me.
Is there anyone about that can point me in the right direction? Thanks, Robin.

Deirdre Roberts - April 05
Very interested as my great grandfather was a wheelwright in Glendun. Are you still there and can I visit sometime?

Naomi Prakash (age 8) - March 05
Hey Davey George im Naomi from scotland me and Natasha from scotland was on the net with me and we went on to your web page and i think it is very very good how a man at 80 has got his own web page will i find it realy good to read about from Naomi from scotland. PS could you keep it on the web page as i am very fond of him. xx

John McCrory - January '05
What can you say about a great man like this. Over the years this man has told me great stories ,not only on carpentry but on the meaning of life. I remember davy george telling me to treat everyone, not as a stranger but as a friend i had not yet met. Growing up in life, this (and many more) of davy george's sayings helped me and i know helped many many more people to face life as it comes. At eighty years of age i think its great that a man like davy george can still do the work that he has done for so many years and im proud to call him my uncle. This is a wonderful website and i hope it carries on for a long time. I will be looking forward to seeing more of the items that he has turned his hand to.

Simon Hull - January '05
This is my Great Uncle George who I am very proud of especially at eighty.

Ruth and Andrew Harvey - January '05
Our davey george ha a lat ta say ta tha yunguns of tha day. they ha a lat ta learn and he is tha one ta learn em. he has a gud aul nature of 'im an can teach us al a lat. gud luck ta ya davey george we misses ya lats and lats, cum visit us soon! we miss tha aul shed where ya taught us all bout yar work. those were tha days! keep at tha hard work, always and forever your loving great neice and nephew.

Noel Graham - January '05
Very interesting story. I met another cartwright John Wright who is in his 70s and demonstrated the art of wheelmaking when he made a cart for James McNeill of Broughshane a few years back. This project was filmed for posterity by Dr. Tony Redmond. I have a spinning wheel that John made and he said the same skills applied to making the wheel properly. John lived near Glenarm many years back and now lives in Broughshane. Maybe you know each other.

William Mills, from Straid - December '04
This is from an old friend of George's to say well done for this web site and your work...one in a million.

Hugh Black, Carnlough - December '04
Davey George McCrory - AKA DG - great article - provides a little bit, but nonetheless a vital piece of the background attached to this man - a local character, craftsman, musician, choirmaster, storyteller, gentleman and a Christian - well done YPAM.

Agnes McGill - December '04
Hi uncle george just been going through ur web page and i found it very good i hope u will get more pages on the net. i will speak 2 u soon. Agnes in Scotland

Ellen Dunlop - December '04
I was delighted with Davey George McCrory's story. He is very well known in our family and loved by all.

Gemma Robinson - December '04
I know Davey very well, I live down below him, his borther has some tractors.

Carl Smarling - December '04
This is a wonderful story of a close to lost art form. Thanks very much for making it available. I was wondering if Mr. McCrory would have any theories or thoughts on the reason for 'dishing' wheels? Also, if he used a lathe in his wheel making for anything other than the stock?

Davey George replies :-
" In days when the roads were often poor quality dirt/stone tracks, wheels were often "dished" with the spokes forming a slight bulge like the subtle curvature of a plate rather than being connected from hub to rim in a straight perpendicular fashion - this was done to eliminate problems encountered when a wheel hit a rut or rocks. It significantly increased the durability of the wheel on non-perfect roads. If the cart or carriage carried a heavy load and encountered a rut off line, the weight of the vehicle would put shear forces on the wheel, and if the wheel were standing "straight" it would be more likely that the spokes might break. By "dishing" the wheel outwards slightly, if it hit a rut or rock, the spokes which were angled slightly outwards from the hub would be far more likely to survive shear forces and survive.

In addition, the sides of a cart were usually splayed out to make it easier to empty a load, so the wheels were dished in order to fit the profile of the splay-sided cart. Non-dished wheels on a splayed cart would either wear on the inner rim as they rubbed against the cart sides, or require wider spacing on the axle, which would increase overall vehicle width and complicate the turning radius. If a hoop is 1/4" to 1/2" thick, the dish angle would be about 3/8".

Later technology saw "dishing" in wheels replaced with a slightly alternating pattern of offset spokes to compensate for shear risk, while maintaining more even wear on the rims. As with dishing, the thickness of the hoop influenced the offset of the "staggered" spokes in similar proportions.

Lathes were used not just to manufacture the knaves or hubs, but create the hoop beds or insets at the end of each knave where the hoop would sit. The knaves were made of elm (swirling grain) so they would not split when the mortices for spokes were hammered in (linear grain wood might split when mortice holes were cut).

If there were four wheels on a cart or carriage, 14 spokes were used to make the ride feel lighter. Standard wheels were 12 spoked, and some low hay carts with wheels less than 30" tall might only be 6 spoked.

Some of the other tools that might be indentified are the hollow auger which was used like a pencil sharpener to shape the end of certain spokes to match the "tenons" or rectangular mortices in some knaves. The corresponding tenon mortice in the knave was first marked with a Round Square - like a T Square (the crossmember still perpendicular, but with the T-bar curved inwards in the third axis to follow the curve around the hub). The width of the wood on the Round Square's straight bar matched the width of the tenon required, so the mortice could be marked precisely by laying the tool on the knave and measuring the line to be cut every 1 1/2" on an 18" circumference hub where each of the twelve spokes would be set in.

You might also find a tramul, rather like a long, straight compass with a point on one end and a pencil on the other - it was used to eyeball and scribe the spot where the spokes needed to be cut to fit from hub to rim.

A different sized lathe would be required to create a solid wooden wheel - a 3 foot wheel might be made up of two curved planks planed by the lathe, but the center axle area would also be lathed to 1 1/2" where the iron gudgeon, the actual metal axle, would go through. These solid wheels were oval when hooped because they needed more wood on the parallel grain sides (which would compress when hooped) than where the grain was long where it wouldn't give. Then the heated iron rim was fitted and compressed so the wheels looked round again."

N Burtney - December '04
A very interesting tale, of a man who took great pride in his work, as well as enjoying it also. It's a real pity that this kind of craftsman is now in decline with only a few remaining to carry on yesteryears crafts. I would imagine this man would be a real pleasure to speak to, with many funny and interesting stories from the area.

Ashley Hobson - December '04
Excellent article very informative.

Carl & Jean Adams
Hi Davey Goge
after talking to you on the phone, and discovering your web page I was very proud to be able to say that Jean and I know you as a personal friend. We often talk about the stories that you and Agnes related to us when we would visit, You gave us great insperation when we worked in the castle, we will never be able to thank you enough, keep up the good ork and we will see you soon.
Carl and Jean.