View the highlights & photographs from our current issue.

Current Issue: #48 - April 2005

In this issue we learn about a spinning-wheel style that came from New Hampshire and some of the people who built those wheels. We discover a new tool for processing flax and more variations on silk reelers.

Londonderry, NH, Flax Wheels
by Michael Taylor

Michael Taylor of Marietta, OH, discovered a similarity in woodworking on several spinning wheels that could be traced to New Hampshire. When he researched the wheel makers, he found that some of them were related and that most of them came from Londonderry, NH.

"James Gregg" Wheel
Courtesy of the American Textile History Museum

"Daniel Miltimore" wheel
Courtesy of the American Textile History Museum

Hugh Ramsey, Spinning-Wheel Maker
by Florence Feldman-Wood

One of the wheel makers that he mentions is Hugh Ramsey of Holderness, NH. Gina Gerhard of Hill, NH, Craig Evans of Brookfield, NH, and I have been trying to learn more about him for some time. I decided to contact the person who originally gave Craig some information about Hugh Ramsey. Nuna Cass of Sullivan, ME, was happy to share all the information she had, and I was able to put most of the pieces together.

Wheel marked "H.R." built by Hugh Ramsey
Courtesy of the American Textile History Museum

The Moulin Flamande
by Alan Raistrick

On his recent short trips to the Continent, Alan Raistrick of Chinnor, England, discovered a 19th-century tool for scutching flax. These tools are called Moulins Flamande or Flemish Mills. He describes them and explains how they work.

Moulin Flamande or Flemish Mill

Update: Silk Reelers

The Update on Japanese silk-reeling devices includes information from Susie Henzie of Los Angeles, CA, about her two reelers, as well as pictures from Candace Crockett, of San Francisco, CA. Philip Harang of Sugarland, TX, put me in contact with Michael Cook of Dallas, TX, who reels silk and had information on the history of these tools. He and Albert Eberle of San Francisco, CA, both have examples of yet another variation on geared silk reelers.

Michael Cook's web site is www.wormspit.com

Geared silk reeler or zakuri - Photo courtesy of Candace Crockett

Silk reeler without gears - Collection of Susie Henzie

Michael Cookıs zakuri

Detail of gears