Practical Carriage Building

I am so loving it! A great insight into the wheelwrights' craft from the late 19th century. I'm just getting started reading it, but the info so far is outstanding.

This book is truly a classic... It gives a detailed description from start to Finnish how to build a horse carriage. It does use the traditional ways and tools.

If you are interested in carriages and wagons, or maybe trying to repair one, this is a good book to have on hand.

An excellent book written by a craftsman who really knows what he is talking about .very concise book covers every thing you would want to know about carriage building.

If you are just getting into carriage building or restoration, you will find this book pretty interesting. First half or so concentrates on the wheel building until they realize they need to talk about the rest of the wagon. You could just about make wagons from this book, but, there are a lot more elements and details that this book leaves out. Pretty good running gear illustrations that end up with “iron as appropriate” kind of explanations. A good design guide without burdening you with important details like measurements or specific part details.

If like me, you are looking for a book that will actually give you the constructional information you need to build or repair a cart or carriage this is the book to get. The collected wisdom of the old craftsman in their own words, not scholarly ruminations that give little or no practical help to those few of us who want to keep alive the craft.

This book encompasses multiple perspectives on aspects of carriage building. If you want to restore a carriage or build an authentic carriage from scratch, this is the ONE book you must have. Topics of discussion include rebuilding wheels and hubs; proper caster and camber of wheels and axles; appropriate lumber for different areas of construction; how to pick a good tree for the right lumber and many, many, MANY more.

This books has been very helpful to me in restoring a 100 year old Carriage. I may attempt to construct one of the vehicles described in this book.