pottery-whels-msg - 12/24/18

Period pottery wheels. Different types. Building them.

NOTE: See also the files: pottery-msg, glasswork-msg, pigments-msg, p-tableware-msg, aquamaniles-msg, utensils-msg, p-bottles-msg.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 14:33:06 EDT
From: freyja1 at juno.com (Timothy A Whitcomb)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: ceramics-coil building doc.

Good Greetings Tatiana!

>I've been researching Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman pottery. So far, all
>the examples I've found have all been wheel thrown. Surely there are
>surviving examples somewhere of coil built pots in medieval Europe, or so
>I thought, but I can't find them. Does anyone have documentation for 
>such?

Yes there are quite a few coil built pieces. In fact most of the thrown
work you have seen ARE coil-and- throw. A flat base is made and fat coils
are attached. But instead of just thumbing them down, they are also
thrown and smoothed... This is a technique used world wide both in Period
and Currently.  For the cultures and periods you mentioned, that is the
primary mode of production, because they were stuck with the "slow
wheel", which is essentially just a crude turntable incapable of throwing
a good pot from the lump.

<snip. for more on the pots done with these techniques - see pottery-msg>

Hroar


Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 02:46:21 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Anglo Saxon Wheel thrown pottery

There is a book called Wheel Thrown Pottery in Anglo Saxon Graves by Vera
Evison, that those interested in pottery/AS might like to look at. It is
very acedemic and the overall conclusion is that it was very very rare.
More common in the South and probably imports. (not read it myself this was
from an archeologist friend of mine)

Mel


Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 17:52:43 -0500
From: Wendy Colbert <WendyC at vivid.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Potter's wheel plans needed

>Can anyone direct me to plans for building a potter's wheel?  Kickwheel or
>motor powered, either one.

My dad built a kickwheel when I was a kid so I passed this question along
to him and here is his answer:

Oh, Lord, do you know how many years it has been since I built that
kickwheel?  Close to forty years.  I'd probably built it differently
now.

OK, that said, there are two basic kind of kickwheels: treadle and
rotating platform.  Most people these days use treadles or electric
wheels.  If (s)he wants to build a rotating platform what I used was the
front wheel bearing assembly from an old (1938?) Ford mounted spindle
up, and used the  rim and the tire as the platform, kicking on the top
of the tire.  An extension rod from the hub ran up through a
supplemental pillow bearing just below the throwing platform and held up
the plate. The main frame was 2 x 8 lumber.

If I were doing it today, I would get on the web and look for a site
that has posted plans for whatever kind of wheel I felt like building.
It would also pay an inexperienced potter to go to a local pottery
studio, pay a fee to use their wheels and see what I liked/did not like
about their wheels.  A lot depends on how experienced the potter is.  I
cannot recommend an inexperienced potter starting out to build a wheel
and an experienced potter probably has pretty firm ideas what they want
in a wheel.

I hope this helps.  I'll try to answer any more specific questions.

-----
I would be glad to pass more specific questions on to him, or contact me
privately and I will put you in touch with my dad, I don't feel like
broadcasting his address.

Irene


Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 23:25:42 -0500
From: rmhowe <magnusm at ncsu.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Potter's wheel plans needed

gregory.stapleton at funb.com writes:
> Can anyone direct me to plans for building a potter's wheel?  Kickwheel or
>  motor powered, either one.
>
>  Gawain

Try the Self Reliant Potter by Andrew Holden ISBN 0-671-61193-3
Covers Kiln and foot and electric wheel building with good plans.
Van Nostrand Reinhold 1984  another ISBN on it: 0-442-23215-2
Also:
Building Pottery Equipment by Roger Harvey and Sylvia and John Kolb.
Watson Guptill Publications ISBN 0-8230-0540-2
Isaac Pitmann and Sons (UK) 0-273-00855-2  Circa 1976

Magnus


Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 10:57:40 -0600
From: <sunwyn at scan.missouri.org>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Pottery Wheel Plans

Recently someone inquired about pottery wheel plans. I
found this site that might be helpful.
http://www.dreamscape.com/smiths/plans.html

Sunwyn


Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 14:08:20 EST
From: Timothy a Whitcomb <freyja1 at juno.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: "Slow Wheels, Coil and Throw & A.S. Pottery.."

    Some time back, Mel, I believe it was, asked about slow wheels and
coil and throw methods.

    As to slow wheeels, they are refered to in Rackhams "Medieval English
Pottery" and McCarthy and Brooks "Medieval Pottery in Britain AD 900 to
1000". Basically, they are a turntable. One hand keeps it in motion,
while the other manipulates the clay as it turns. This works best with
coil and throw and with refining the rims of strictly coil built pots.
(my understading is that antler tools were carved into templates to form
uniform rims.)

   Coil and throw is a technique, similar to straight coil building,
whereby, as a thick coil is added to the growing pot, it is wetted and
pulled up and thinned. Further coils are added and  manipulated thus.
This technique works best on a kickwell, but is  done also on a slow
wheel, as practiced by many Native American potters of the desert south
west.

    Modifying my stance, it seems that most AS pots were strictly coil
built, but a good number had templated rims, {which really  can only be
done with the pot rotating in some fashion] and a smaller number they
just aren't sure about, due to the finishing processes employed erasing
forming techiques (unless thin sections were analysed, and inclusion
patterns observed.)

    Now as to the various types of drinking vessels, according to the
McCarthy and Brooks, it would seem that one would see many more wood,
leather, glass and metal drinking vessels than clay ones until the
14th-15th Century in England. The pottery ones existed, but in smaller
numbers.

Hroar


Subject: Medieval Pottery Wheel
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 02:37:14 -0400
From: rmhowe <MMagnusM at bellsouth.net>
To: - Potters <SCA-Potters at eGroups.com>

A while back a lot of potters were quizzing each other about 
what a medieval potter's wheel looked like. I can't recall a 
good answer. I recently bought a book that _does_ have a 
depiction of one, a very good one.

Anyway the book is:

Pottery in the Making, Ceramic Traditions
Edited by Ian Freestone and David Gaimster.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Copyright 1997 by the Trustees of the British Museum
First published in Great Britain. ISBN 1560987979

The frontispiece (nearly full page) is a depiction of
a "Female potter from a pack of playing cards presented to
the Imperial Habsburg Court, mid 15th Century. Courtesy
of the Kunstkammer, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
(KK5105)" "The card shows the potter using a long bone
(probably a cow metapoidal) to form the corrugated surface
of a funnel-necked stoneware jug of the period."

Okay, how would I describe this so that you can recreate it?
Well, trust my twenty odd years of making a great many things
professionally. After over a thousand pieces of furniture alone
for example I can estimate sizes fairly well.

Open your minds and visualise before you worry over the details.

On the card the Potter (attractive, rather buxom, bare legged and 
footed... Damn! Wrong image, forget that!) sits facing the holder 
with the wheel between her legs on a platform. Austria is damned 
cold in the winter, especially without one's shoes on a wet floor, 
and you're playing with mud for a living. No wonder she's posing
for cheescake. 

The wheel itself resembles a squirrel cage of large dowels with 
differently sized wheels top and bottom.

The raised base platform is composed of six wide planks on three 
square pieces. I would estimate that the base is roughly 4 to 4 1/2 
feet square in size. The six planks that comprise it sit edge to edge 
and show no visible spacing between them and appear to be about 
1 1/4" thick each and run the whole width. There are three small
blocks of wood visible in the front that it sits on. One would think 
that they would span the distance perpendicular to the planks but it's 
obvious from the outer ones that you can see the back edge and they're
cubic at least on the corners of the base. Artistic license I suppose. 
The outer ones sit about 1 1/2" from the corners and the middle one 
is centered. They appear to be 1 1/2" in each dimension.
(It looks like a large, low pallet supported about an inch and a 
half off the floor.)

Two walls are visible in the background forming a corner in the 
room. There is a shelf running along the left wall with 4 more
funnel necked jugs and a handled jug on it.

Holding up the one end of the shelf in the corner is a bracket
with 4 arcs in succession cut into it at a bevel. I suppose this 
is her drying or sales shelf. There's an empty scroll depicted coming
out of the pot and a shield device on the left side wall.

She sits on an apparently movable stool behind the wheel, only 
two legs of which are visible behind her skirt. I say movable because
the visible parts of the legs are splayed.

As she sits the wheel is mounted forward and to the left of 
center on the platform base between the 2nd and 3rd plank. It 
doesn't show, but there must be a central shaft running through 
the bottom wheel to a pivot in the top wheel through the middle 
of the cage of dowels.

The base of the wheel cage is about 16" in diameter and about 1 1/2" 
thick, perhaps a little more. 

The wheel platform on top appears to be two piece. The lower part is 
about the same thickness as the bottom wheel and perhaps 12" wide. 
>From this can be seen five roughly 1" dowels dropping down to the
base. 

Note - *only the front dowels are depicted* and there is about 1 1/2"
_between_ each, meaning roughly a 2 1/2" dowel center spacing inside 
the dowel circle's outer circumference which looks to be on the
outside about an inch smaller than the upper wheel's circumference 
on each side. 

I'm basing my estimates of the measurements on her anatomy, in this
case her foot, legs, hands, and knee height. That cleavage has 
_absolutely_ nothing to do with this description. 

The wheel top is about as high as her knee. 

On top of the upper wheel is a bat or top plate that she's turning
another funnel-necked jug on. I presume this is removable, perhaps
not. The illustration is b&w and I have only the color tones to go 
by which look similar. The wheel edges look rounded.

Her hair looks braided in buns or plaited with ribbons and covered by
a cloth of some sort. Her left foot is poised to turn the wheel base
and it looks like she's going to draw it toward her, not away.
There is a large lump of clay on the platform to her front left.
She's not overdressed by any means and I can imagine the cardplayers'
fantasies. A very nice depiction.

If I were to lay this thing out I'd scribe myself two discs about
12 and 16" wide, 1 1/2 inches thick, drawing the circles carefully
with a compass. Then I'd move the compass leg in about 1 1/2" in on
the upper 12" wheel and scribe another circle for the dowel centers.
(If you're paying attention you just drew a nine inch circle.)
Then I'd move the compass to the 16" wheel and scribe the same size
circle. (Drilling your shaft holes prior to this won't help the 
process a bit. You need your centers.) Then I'd cut it carefully
on a friend's bandsaw if I didn't have one. Having marked out
thousands of parts of furniture I'd use a ball point pen to mark
and cut the outer edges to. It's much more precise and easy to see
than a pencil. Sand the edges and hopefully round them over, perhaps
with a router or a spokeshave, (they're your feet). You will end up 
with 3" of kick space on each side of the lower wheel for your feet.
Which looks to be just about what she had.

To space the dowels about 2 1/2+" on center (leaving 1 1/2" between)
I'd take the compass legs and set them to about 2 1/2" on a ruler
and start pacing off the intervals along this 9" circle on one wheel, 
adjusting the spread of the legs in or out until I got an even 
spacing on the last pace. Meaning you'd end up where you started.
Then once this was worked out I'd make one more pass on each wheel 
making a -good- mark with the compass to be drilled partially through 
later. I'd center punch these. I think you'll need about 11 dowels.
(9" x 3.14 = 28.26", 28.26" divided by 2.5 equals 11.304 dowel spaces, 
discounting for the slight loss of distance on the divider legs vs.
the arc it should be about right. Season to taste.)

 - If I wanted a wooden shaft:
Then I'd drill my center hole slightly larger than the shaft size
I intended to use through the lower wheel for the shaft, maybe
1/8-1/4".

I can't see the shaft on the card but I'd imagine a 1 1/2" wood one 
would do or slightly larger. If it was me I might use a metal rod, 
perhaps 1", but they probably used wood. Either way I'd sand the
inside of the hole.

Now, how to make the bearing for the top wheel and end the shaft?
You don't want to drill all the way through.
Some pivots on vertical shafts I've seen end in a point and drilled 
out cone. Some end in a hole with a shaft with a ball bearing on top. 
Either way - well greased. 

I suppose you could try it with a smoothly ended shaft and a square 
bottomed well-greased hole with a couple of suitable steel fender 
washers in it to prevent wear. A spade or paddle bit (same thing, 
looks like a shovel with a point in the middle of the blade) can be 
re-ground to give you a taper if you desire. 60 degrees would be a 
good choice. Or you can use it unground for a flat bottomed hole in 
the top wheel. (Forstner bits would be nice here but really
expensive.) 

I think I'd fasten a smaller block below the top wheel I had drilled
through too as an extra safety factor in case the shaft came out of 
the top pivot by chance. But I think I'd make the safety block's hole
a bit larger than the shaft if I was doing it to cut down on friction.
Meaning you drill the safety block hole first, attach it and align 
it's center hole around the already drilled pivot point which goes 
only maybe halfway through the top piece.

(You don't want that hefty barbarian impaling himself on that nifty 
new 'stool' you got even if it is period. Another good reason to
keep it not far from the base.)

 - If I wanted a metal shaft pipe:
You could use a pipe for your shaft through the lower wheel and
partway into your upper wheel and/or safety block and paint it to 
look like the dowels. Then impale it on a shaft mounted in the 
platform base. Fix a rod to plug the pipe part way down in the upper 
pipe and put a large single ball bearing with grease in between. This 
would require holes the size of the pipe in the wheel parts. You 
probably couldn't see it very well for the dowel cage anyway. It might 
even turn better.)

Obviously you'll have to have a sturdy block below your base platform 
and be very careful to drill your hole vertically. The hole in the
lower wheel would need to be bigger than your shaft to turn. I'd cut 
to length and mount the shaft the last thing. If you don't fix the 
shaft in permanently you could disassemble the whole mess later for 
ease of transport. 

 - If I had a lot of money I'd get real ball bearings and have a
machinist make the damned shaft. But you probably don't either.
Anyway it would be obviously cheating.

Drill matching size holes for your 1" dowels for the 9" circles.
I'd use a drill press if I were you and not drill these all the
way through, leaving maybe half an inch below the wide part of the
bit. If your dowels are too loose you'll still have a half inch of 
wood below and above them you can screw through if necessary, and 
an inch of thickness all around them to glue each dowel into the 
wheel. When I went to the store for the dowels I think I'd take a 
piece of wood with a 1" hole drilled in it to check the dowels. 
In my experience dowels can vary quite a bit in diameter. 
Check both ends. Sight for straightness.

(Someone probably cross pegged or wedged the dowel ends in medieval 
days. Waterproof glue was something they didn't have. They could use
dry dowels and green wheels to shrink on to them but you're not likely
to do this. It's a chairmaker's trick for putting stretchers in legs.
If you cut wedge slots into the ends of your dowels and do drill them
all the way through make _sure_ that the wedges are driven in
perpendicular to the grain of the wheels, or else you'll split them.
The end grain of the wood can absorb a whole lot of water and expand
to split the wheels too so I'd seal it really well if you try this.)

To figure your dowel lengths:
Figure a slight distance above the base so your wheel can rotate,
and deduct it from the height you want your wheel to be (including the 
bat). Her wheel topped about at her knees.

Deduct the thickness of the bat, and then deduct the remaining 
thickness, if any, of the wood at the bottom of both top and bottom 
dowel holes. Then cut your dowels to length for gluing in. I suggest 
using a _waterproof_ glue like Titebond II, Gorilla Glue or similar, 
or resourcinol (this kind often leaves a purple stain). 

At this point I highly recommend sanding, staining and finishing this 
cage _before_ it's assembled, see below:

Color or stain all parts but the dowel ends and holes to taste prior
to finishing before assembly. I suggest finishing the wheels with 
something fairly waterproof after edging and sanding them beforehand
to remove splinters. I'd round over or rout the wheel edges as well.
This would be prior to assembly. A polyurethane, urethane, spar
varnish or fiberglass resin finish would probably suffice. Your 
hardware store should have all of these. Fiberglass resins are in 
the automotive department. (You won't need the fiberglass cloth.) 
It may not be medieval, but it's practical. Or wax the hell out of it.
;)

Insert all dowels and clamp or weight heavily. 
Check for squareness. A try square against the inside of the 
dowels on the base should do.

As I remember plaster bats they have a recess to fit over the 
metal wheels on modern potters' wheels. This bat appears to be the
same color and size as the top of the wheel below it.

A trick we used to use to hold or register items together was to
take brads or nails and drive them into a surface, cut them off and 
file them sharp like a chisel in line with the grain of the board 
above. Then take the matching surface and press/pound it onto the 
brads on the other. This technique was used by medieval woodturners -
only they used larger bits of metal for the teeth on the lathe 
mandrels they wrapped the cord around to drive the bowls for 
turning between centers on their pole lathes. 

What held the medieval bats on I'm not sure. Perhaps you're privy to
that secret and will share it. Maybe the top wheel had a recess, maybe 
it had a protrusion that went into the bat. I can't say. You're on 
you're own on this one. I would think that a recess in the top wheel 
would collect water and split the wheel if it's solid unprotected 
wood. The only wood I can recollect being very hard to split is elm 
which has alternately spiral grain. 

Now, since this diabolic thing is a whirling squirrel cage in essence,
don't blame me if you stub or break a finger or toe sticking it in 
too far while it's whirling. I described it pretty accurately.
It has the advantage of being hand or foot turned by the look of it.

About the book:
"Starting with the basic question "What is pottery?" this insightful
book investigates ceramic production throughout the world over the
past 12,000 years. Drawing on the collections of the British Museum,
the contributors examine more than thirty pottery traditions,
including those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, prehistoric Japan,
pre-Hispanic Peru, classical Greece, Ming China, and medieval and 
Renaissance Europe as well as the ceramics of contemporary Africa 
and India.

With an emphasis on the technological aspects of pottery production,
...." from the rear cover.

"Ian Freestone is head of ceramics in the Department of Scientific
Research, British Museum, and a Contributor to Science and the Past 
(1991). David Gaimster is curator in the Department of Medieval and
Later Antiquities, British Museum." from the rear cover.
Gee, it just doesn't get much more authoritative than that.

This book depicts a great range of techniques and wares.
I particularly liked the fancy wares of Germany and England,
the aquamaniles, pottery impression stamps, tools, etc.

                           xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

(Added to the above article October 5, 2000)

An additional depiction of a German Potter's wheel can be found in
the book:

Old and Curious Playing Cards by H.T. Morley, early 1900's, reprinted
by Wellfleet Press (who conveniently left out the earlier edition
information dammit!). This edition Bracken Books 1989, ISBN
1555215041.

It depicts the devil turning a pot on a playing card of eight bells.
There is no platform, but the wheel has the same squirrel cage assembly
with two exceptions - the lower wheel does not project out much beyond
the dowels, and the upper wheel is perhaps four or five inches thick
with an outer edge that flares outward and upward like a horn end.
The devil is seated on what appears to be a three legged round stool
with rectangular cross-sectioned legs, only one of which appears.
The central shaft comes straight up out of the ground, but can only
be seen below the lower wheel. There is not a separate bat on the 
top wheel. If the devil can be assumed to have human proportions then 
the upper wheel sits again at knee height and is about as wide as the 
thigh is long. One of this design would have to be turned by hand. 

The card designor was Dr. Thomas Murner of the sixteenth century in
Friburg. He was a Minorite Friar of the Order of St. Francis.

                            xxxxxxxxxxxx

Magnus Malleus, OL; Windmasters' Hill, Atlantia; Great Dark Horde
                 (copyright 2000 R. M. Howe) 
May be forwarded only to subscriber based email lists within the SCA/ 
reenactor community, but NOT to the Rialto or any open newsgroup.

                             xxxxxxxxxxx

A while after I wrote the above article it generated some additional
comments by folks on the potter's list.
                             xxxxxxxxxxx

Fri, 21 Jul 2000 11:26:58 -0500
From: Stephanie Howe <olga at icon-stl.net>
Subject: Re: Medieval Pottery Wheel
To: <SCA-Potters at eGroups.com>

THANK YOU Master Magnus!!

Wonderful!  Now, where am I going to get my hands on this book...;)

Seriously, that's a wonderful redaction of the wheel's construction. 
Makes me think that if I had any woodworking experience and the proper
tools, I'd be able to follow your directions to build a working
reproduction.  

Are you interested in a commission?  If you don't mind scarred knees,
I'd even be happy to pose in proper costume with the finished wheel
for photos... :)

As for attaching the bats to the wheelhead:  no reason to suspect it was
done any differently than modern flat bats- plaster, wood, masonite or
plastic.  Two or even 3 pins (My old Soldner wheel has 3 original pin
holes) in the wheelhead that key into corresponding holes in the bat. 
Simple and effective.  Sounds to me that you're more familiar with
"bucket head" bat systems, where the wheelhead is a collar to fit a
flanged removable bat.

Olga
..............

Fri 21 Jul 2000 12:13:30 -0500
From: geneviev <geneviev at southwind.net>
Subject: Re: Medieval Pottery Wheel
To: <SCA-Potters at eGroups.com>

Olga,
Master Alan and I have made the wheels that we have at Lilies each year.
And Yes he does take commissions.  he would even deliver.  The Design comes
from Piccalopasso with modern adapations of bearings and concrete in
the fly wheel.
Genevieve
                           xxxxxxxxxxx
The book referred here to is:
 "Piccolpassi, Cipriano. : Les Trois Livres de l'Art du Potier... ;
Paris; Librairie Internationale: 1860. The first French edition of this important work, translated from the first Italian edition of 1857. Piccolpassi's 
work, the only surviving description of the techniques, tools, equipment 
and methods of the 16th century Italian potter, was written in manuscript
form and not published until these editions of 1857 and 1860, by which 
time the original manuscript was in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Solon praises this edition as being perhaps the best literal translation of 
the original, although a bit quaint by modern standards. Modern readers 
may be too busy looking at the carefully executed plates of the potters,
their workshops, kilns and wares, to notice. 11.5"x14.5", 87 pages
plus 40 lithographed plates."

I understand there has been a modern reprint or two under the title:

The Three Books of the Potter's Art - Cipriano Piccolopasso.

                           xxxxxxxxxxx
Sat 22 Jul 2000 05:10:45 EST
From: "Alexander de Vos" <fgpottery at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Medieval Pottery Wheel
To: <SCA-Potters at eGroups.com>

Sounds like a great book Magnus.

Now from what I can see on my colour version of the card there is no
bat  involved. If you want some examples of period wheel designs, 
(snip) ... (see)
"German Stoneware 1200-1900" by David Gaimster...
(snip)
 It has a small cut away diagram of 4 alternative wheel
reconstructions, showing how the wheel was secured into position.

And about securing bats onto the wheel head, you could always use a
pad of clay.

Alex

(Alex was a student in Canada, who has since graduated and returned to
Australia. He has his own pottery there.)

                              xxxxxxxxx

Up until recently there was no archive option applied to this list.
However it did begin archiving shortly before October 2000. It originally
started out as Potters at onelist.com then became SCA-Potters at egroups.com
To find the list go to http://www.egroups.com/ search SCA-Potters
-------------------------------


From the FB "Artisans of the Society for Creative Anachronism" group:

Kaðlín Konálsdottir
December 4,2018 at 4:40pm
Does anyone have any information, links, or texts discussing kick style pottery wheels, their structure and the time of use. Especially interested in Romano-British and Early Northumbrian periods.

Michele Buzbee 
You want Robert Van Rens for pottery questions.
December 5 at 1:15am

Kaðlín Konálsdottir 
Sweet. Can you point me to some information on how kick wheels were constructed back in the day, Roman -Anglo-Saxon periods?
December 5 at 12:01pm

Robert Van Rens 
They weren't. Neither the Roman nor Anglo-Saxon potters made extensive use of the wheel. Roman potters used a simple wooden turntable while working. We really don't know much about Anglo-Saxon techniques, other than a bunch of bone and ceramic tools.
December 5 at 12:03pm

Kaðlín Konálsdottir 
How did the Roman turntable work?
December 5 at 12:05pm

Robert Van Rens 
A simple wooden disc mounted on a dowel. Rotated manually while coil-building.
December 5 at 12:16pm

Kaðlín Konálsdottir 
Well that sounds easier to build than a kick wheel and will be more period. Thank you.

Maggs Kailhofer Not period at all, please forgive me if this is too off topic, but nice video of modern treadle-style wheel I just stumbled across. I'm just about to step into trying pottery for the first time, so I've been watching a lot of youtube videos, and thought this was nifty. https://youtu.be/IBbgo0T0bR4

<the end>
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