Types%20of%20Spinning%20Wheels

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Types of Spinning Wheels

• Great Wheel or Walking Wheel
• Drop Spindles
• Flier Lead or drive band driven wheels

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Great Wheel or walking wheel

• (usually) turned by hand,
• very large (eg 50" diameter),
• used for long draw on things like cotton (high
  twist)
• unusual
• spindle, not flyer

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Drop Spindle

• Drop Spindles were in use before recorded
  history. Most historians agree that the practice
  of spinning fibers into yarn or thread existed
  over 10,000 years ago. The drop spindle could
  have been used for over 9,000 years before the
  spinning wheel was invented in India during the
  late Middle Ages. The drop spindle has been
  documented back to the 1st century A.D. In Middle
  Eastern archeological sites, whorls from drop
  spindles have been dated back to 5000 B.C. No
  spindles have been excavated because they were
  usually made from wood that biodegraded over
  time. Some cultures used rocks for spinning, and
  this process is still used today by nomadic
  tribes in remote parts of Asia.

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Types of Drop Spindles

• There are several types of drop spindles
  available today.
• They very in design and weight
• The drop spindle used for wool needs to have a
  heavier whorl than a hand spindle used for
  cotton because wool fibers are longer. Wool
  fibers are generally around four or more inches
  in length, whereas cotton fibers are only one to
  two inches long.

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Low-Whorl drop spindle

• Low-whorl drop spindle with the whorl near the
  bottom of the
• spindle.

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High-whorl drop spindle

• High-whorl drop spindle with the whorl is near
  the top of the spindle.

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Hooked High whorl ½ length

• A hooked, high-whorl spindle with a whorl located
  at less than half the length of the spindle and
  has a hook on top

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Hooked high-whorl spindle

• A hooked high-whorl spindle with two whorls
  located near each other but with enough space to
  wind the yarn between them

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Turkish Drop Spindle

• Turkish drop spindle, which features a double
  cross-arm instead of a circular whorl.

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Scotch tension or flyer lead

• A single band drives the flyer
• The bobbin has an adjstable friction band to slow
  it

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Bobbin lead

• A single band drives the bobbin
• The flyer has a friction brake

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Double drive

• Both the flyer and bobbin are driven at different
  speeds according to the whorls fitted.

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Upright wheel (also traveller or parlour)

• Flyer mounted above the wheel, making the wheel
  more portable.
• Will usually fit on a car passenger seat with the
  seat belt holding it.

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Castle wheel

• Wheel mounted above the flyer, a very tall wheel!

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Saxony wheel

• Three-legged 'standard wheel'
• Flyer usually to left of the wheel
• May have to travel in the car boot trunk or
  take the whole of the back seat.

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Charka Wheel

• Charka (means wheel) was developed in India by
  Ghandi in 1920 so the women of India could spin
  cotton thread and yarn in vast quantities. This
  mass production was to make Indian people less
  dependent upon England for cotton and he truly
  believed that spinning gave peace of mind.

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Electric 'wheel'

• A flyer on bearings driven by a small motor.
• Very compact, can be useful for people with
  limited use of legs.
• Very portable, can be battery powered. (Mine has
  a model steam traction engine powered option for
  demonstrations).