Oiling and Waxing Spinning Wheels

Several people have asked me how to care for the wood in spinning wheels. Well, this goes right along with your fine wood dining table, china cabinet or any other piece of furniture that features fine woods. They are all made from trees, a renewable resource, cut down, sliced into lumber, refined into the fine furniture we all love. They all require care, polishing, oiling and loving.

Now, I happen to collect antique furniture. I inherited quite a mixture of different woods from antique to quite modern pieces, and have added some very fine and some very rough pieces to this collection. Decorators ask what shade of wood would we like in our rooms, Walnut?, Knotty Pine, Distressed Pecan?, Oak or Maple? in their many different shades? They would have a fit when viewing my great room! I have everything. I have Pine, Walnut, Oak, distressed Pecan, Rock Maple all jumbled in together. The one thing all these have in common is the need to be dusted, polished and waxed.

Our great, great grandmothers had only the choice of beeswax to make a nice shine on their furniture. Today we have about as many choices of polishing substances as there are bees in a bee hive. Some of the furniture I have brought home, like the Great Wheels were so old and worn they had little or no finish left on them. Some like the Moswolt Wheel are things of great beauty, lovingly cared for all their lives.

When I bring home a piece of wood furniture with out much finish left on it, I finish sanding it down, saturate it with linseed oil for several days, then hand rub Tung Oil blended finish into it’s surface. If I choose not to refinish it, I spray it with Orange Oil and buff with a soft cloth. For general purpose dusting and polishing, I like Beeswax and Orange Oil in suspension. There are the heavenly odors of the beeswax and orange to make my room smell good, but mostly that combination gives enough oil to the wood to preserve it and the beeswax lays down a protective coat and really nice shine. I pour the Beeswax and Orange Oil on the fleece side of the sheepskin, and coat the wood liberally and have at least one cup of coffee. I then go back and buff the wood with a soft cloth like worn out tee-shirts.

The one brand name of furniture polish I look for is Howard's. I can find it at most hardware stores that have a wood refinishing section or I can go to the woodworking supply stores to get it. I keep little scraps of sheepskin pelts to use for furniture waxing. I get these from making vests and other fancy stuff from sheepskins. Or I can get them from leather supply companies. Tandy Leather Company and Leather Factory stores may have these scraps available. You can also get these from saddle making shops. You just have to look to see what is available in your area.

How to Buy a Spinning Wheel

So you want to get a wheel? There are so many out there. How do you know what brand to buy or should you get a used one? All spinning wheels are lovely to look at. We’ve seen them sitting in antique shop windows, as decorations in living space layouts, and on ebay! They are featured in movies, TV programs, and in magazines. But which one should you choose? Should it be antique, gently used, or should it be new?

My first wheel was an Ashford Kiwi, a beautiful little basic wheel. These are very good beginner wheels. They are totally simple with scotch tension. My request to Santa was for one of the Traditional or Elizabeth wheels. With the advice of the shop owner, a spinner himself, Santa brought me the Kiwi, still in the box! Ashford wheels come as kits. They are made of birch and can be stained any color you might wish. Top this off with very clear instructions for putting them together and you have a really good project.

If you get a wheel by mail, it might not be the one for you. You should do some research, find the nearest yarn shop or spinning shop and go try out all the wheels in the shop. Just sit and treadle some for a little while. If there isn’t a shop near you, check for a Spinning Guild near you. See if they won’t invite you to a couple of meetings to spin on their wheels for a bit. Most guilds are looking for new members so are happy to have visitors.

If you are determined to have an antique wheel, ask the antiques store owner if you can minutely inspect the wheel he has in the window. Bring along a new cotton or linen drive band, an oilcan, and some fleece. You may have to replace the drive band and for sure you will have to oil the moving parts. Then spin a little fleece to see how the wheel reacts. If the wheel is like most I have seen, it will need some more repairs. This includes the little tab from the footman to the treadle. All that is needed is a new piece of soft flexible leather and a couple of tacks. On Walking Wheels you would need a new drive band and a small tube of Vaseline, the oilcan and your fleece.

There are bargains to be had, that’s for sure. Watch the ads in the newspaper, the message boards at the yarn and spinning shops, garage sales, and used furniture sales. You can find some great deals that way. The local spinning guilds usually have a sales list in their newsletters also. But a word of caution: Always tryout the wheel before laying down your hard earned dollars. If you purchase a wheel you can’t get along with, it will sit in the corner and collect dust and cobwebs for a few years before you put it in a garage sale or advertise it on maybe Ebay.

No way can I spin on my son’s Indian Spinner. He got a bargain on it from an older lady. He had tried the wheel, loved it and she said it was for sale. It has a heavy cast iron wheel in a rectangular frame. It’s a high production wheel and has a very heavy treadle. I cannot keep the wheel going round! So be warned that people do buy the wrong wheel and then regret it very much as it becomes a dust collector.