DUNREA, Man. – Norbert Carney weaves his way between piles of wood and scores of woodworking tools. His workshop appears to be in disarray, but he always manages to find the tool or block of wood that he’s looking for.
Crickets chirp outside the shop while Carney gives a demonstration of how he hones wood on a lathe. Wood shavings spill onto his hands as a block of maple is shaped into a large spindle.
The spindle may one day become part of an elaborate spinning wheel that converts sheep’s wool into yarn. Manufacturing the wheels is a pastime for Carney. He has made 26 of them since retiring as a carpenter more than two decades ago.
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He sells some and gives others away as gifts. All of them are built so their owners can spin wool into yarn, if they so desire.
“I wouldn’t want one just to look at,” said Carney, 86, who lives in Dunrea, a small community southeast of Brandon, Man. “I want them to be good looking, but they have to be useful too.
“Some people buy them on impulse to set in the corner of their living room. Others want them to actually spin wool.”
Carney credits his daughter, Suzanna, for his interest in spinning wheels. She found instructions to build them in a do-it-yourself book. Although the book contained only part of the instructions, Carney managed to find the companion volume at a local auction. That gave him the guidelines and incentive to build his first wheel.
Since then, he has studied the details and design that go into making a spinning wheel. There are usually 48 pieces of wood and other parts that have to be assembled and crafted.
“I’ve owned a lot of wheels and repaired a lot of wheels,” said Carney. “I’ve restored a lot of old wheels that were broken down and made them nice.”
There was a time, said Carney, when a well-built spinning wheel was one of the ways to impress a woman in some parts of Europe.
“It was a little bit of a competition (among the men) to see who would make the nicest one. That was something at that time. It meant something.”
Canadian farm women used to carry portable spinning wheels with them during visits with neighbors so they could spin wool while enjoying the company of friends. The wool was later knit into bedding, mitts, socks and other warm apparel, Carney said.
A variety of woods are suitable for a spinning wheel. Carney often uses poplar, ash, oak and birch, or a combination of all four. Not one to waste good wood, he has found materials in some unlikely places.
“That wheel was made out of wood from my parents’ bedstead,” he said, in reference to a chair-style wheel in his living room.
Carney creates most of his spinning wheels during the winter. Some years he makes as many as three but other years he doesn’t build any. He’ll never get rich selling them, but that was never his intention.
“I like anything that’s a bit of a challenge,” he said. “When you’re doing something you like and things go well, it gives you a happy feeling.”
