The following text is from Our Old Town by Thomas Miller.
A good wheeler was an artist who took pride in his work, who scorned to put a felloe in a wheel that was not well seasoned, or a spoke that was not tough as steel. It was a grand sight to see him, with his shirt-sleeves tucked up, and his bare and brawny arms, striking away with his adze at a huge block of elm which lay on the ground, from which he would chop out the nave of a wheel, with a hole drilled through the centre for the axle-tree to run in; and when he had chopped and chopped, and the block began to assume a shape something like what it was intended to be, he would take up his huge auger and bore the holes for the spokes to be driven into, which were an inch and a half in diameter. Then he would get the felloes, which were ready sawn out, and lay them in a circle on the ground, and fit in the spokes, and drive them home into the nave. The felloes were mostly made of ash, and the spokes of oak. A good wheel was a perfect circle when it was finished and bound round with a strong hoop of iron. There was a pleasant musical ringing sound in the stroke of the smith’s hammer.
A good wheeler was an artist who took pride in his work, who scorned to put a felloe in a wheel that was not well seasoned, or a spoke that was not tough as steel. It was a grand sight to see him, with his shirt-sleeves tucked up, and his bare and brawny arms, striking away with his adze at a huge block of elm which lay on the ground, from which he would chop out the nave of a wheel, with a hole drilled through the centre for the axle-tree to run in; and when he had chopped and chopped, and the block began to assume a shape something like what it was intended to be, he would take up his huge auger and bore the holes for the spokes to be driven into, which were an inch and a half in diameter. Then he would get the felloes, which were ready sawn out, and lay them in a circle on the ground, and fit in the spokes, and drive them home into the nave. The felloes were mostly made of ash, and the spokes of oak. A good wheel was a perfect circle when it was finished and bound round with a strong hoop of iron. There was a pleasant musical ringing sound in the stroke of the smith’s hammer.