As we have traveled a bit here in France, I have drug my wife, son, in-laws, and friends to dusty museums and shops to see some amazing examples of traditional French woodworking tools and machines. These bits of pre-electric woodworking gems have been covered in beasage, wabi-sabi and love. Some were almost pristine, looking like there were used the day before and a few are shadows of their former-selves, but beautiful none the less. There are lathes, marqueterie saws, Saw-tooth sets, sharpening stones, carts, presses, saws, etc…
One of the most prominent things I noticed were all the different mechanisms for making the different lathes go ’round: peddles, treadles, hand operated flywheels, waterwheels, and bows.
Enjoy
Great pictures. In the picture with the wheel hub chucked up in the lathe is the metal plate some sort of indexing wheel?
Yep, Absolutely. Nice catch! There were two holes at the center marks for the location of each spoke. I didn’t get a great picture, but there is a “L” shaped piece of metal stapled to the lathe on the right. It had two pegs that went into the holes on the plate and a blade on the other side that looked like the hub maker would mark the spoke locations. I didn’t get a great shot of it, but if I go back to Foix, I will try to get a detail and post.