The Trade · Reference
A wagon maker's glossary.
Plain-English definitions for the words that come up around the wagon-maker's shop. 76 terms, in order — from axle to whippletree.
A
- Anvil
- The blacksmith's working surface — a heavy steel block with a flat face, a rounded horn for bending curves, and a square hole (the hardy hole) for holding tools. A good anvil rings when you strike it true. Most shop anvils weigh between 100 and 300 pounds.
- Ash
- A tough, springy hardwood favored for wagon tongues, singletrees, and any part that needs to flex without breaking. Ash takes shock well and resists splitting along the grain — which is exactly what you want in a piece that's getting yanked on by a team of mules.
- Axle
- The bar that runs across the wagon under the bed, with a wheel turning on each end. Old wooden axles were hewn from hickory or oak and fitted with iron skeins where the hub rode; later axles were forged steel straight through. The axle takes the load — every pound on the wagon passes through it.
B
- Beetle
- A heavy wooden mallet used to drive trunnels, set wedges, or persuade joinery without marring the wood. A wheelwright's beetle is typically turned from a chunk of elm or osage — dense, but softer than the parts it's striking.
- Beech
- A close-grained hardwood used for tool handles, mallet heads, and occasionally wheel hubs in regions where elm was scarce. Beech takes a smooth finish and wears slowly, but it's prone to checking if it dries too fast.
- Bolster
- A crosswise timber that sits on top of the running gear and supports the wagon bed. The front bolster pivots on the kingpin so the front wheels can steer; the rear bolster is fixed. Bolsters spread the load across the axle.
- Boot
- A leather or canvas storage pouch hung off the back of a stagecoach or wagon for mail, luggage, and the driver's coat. The word survives in modern British English for a car's trunk.
- Brake shoe
- A wooden or leather-faced block forced against the rim of the wheel to slow the wagon. On steep grades a teamster would chock the wheel entirely — wedge it solid — and let the team walk the wagon down on the locked wheel skidding behind.
- Breeching
- The wide leather strap that runs around a draft horse's hindquarters, letting the animal push backward against the load when descending or backing up. Without breeching, the wagon runs the team.
- Bridle
- The headstall, bit, and reins together — the rig that lets the teamster signal the lead animals. A driving bridle usually carries blinkers so the horse only sees what's ahead.
- Buckboard
- A light four-wheeled wagon with a springy floor of long flexible boards running from axle to axle. The boards themselves are the suspension — they 'buck' over rough ground. Farmers and country doctors swore by them.
- Bullwhacker
- A teamster who drove oxen — usually with a long bullwhip rather than reins, because oxen respond to voice and whip-crack, not bit pressure. Bullwhackers were a profession unto themselves on the freight trails of the 1850s and '60s.
C
- Chuck wagon
- The mobile kitchen of a trail-drive outfit, with a hinged tailgate that folded down into a worktable and drawers full of flour, beans, coffee, and salt pork. Charles Goodnight is credited with the design in 1866. The cook — called Cookie — outranked everyone but the trail boss.
- Collar
- The padded leather ring that fits around a draft animal's neck and shoulders, distributing the pull of the load. The horse collar was one of the most important agricultural inventions of the Middle Ages — without it, a horse can only haul a fraction of its potential.
- Concord coach
- The classic American stagecoach, built in Concord, New Hampshire by the Abbot-Downing company. Its body hung on thick leather thoroughbraces instead of steel springs, so it swung rather than jolted. Mark Twain called it 'an imposing cradle on wheels.'
- Conestoga
- A heavy freight wagon developed by Pennsylvania Dutch wagon-makers in the Conestoga River valley in the 1700s. The bed curved upward at both ends so loose cargo wouldn't shift on slopes. Traditionally painted blue with red running gear and a white canvas top.
- Cookie
- The chuck-wagon cook on a trail drive. Cookie was second in command after the trail boss, controlled the meal schedule, and was generally not to be crossed. Many cookies were older cowhands no longer able to ride hard.
D
- Dishing
- The slight concave curve built into a wagon wheel, with the spokes angling outward from the hub. Dishing lets the wheel resist the side-thrust of a swaying load without buckling. A flat wheel collapses; a dished wheel braces itself like an umbrella.
- Doubletree
- The pivoting crossbar to which two singletrees are attached, used when hitching a pair of horses to a wagon. The doubletree equalizes the pull between the two animals — if one slacks off, the bar swings and the other takes up the load.
- Drawknife
- A blade with handles on both ends, drawn toward the worker to shave wood. The wheelwright uses one to rough out spokes, taper tongues, and clean up felloes. A good drawknife is held just so — angle it wrong and it digs in.
- Draw-filing
- The technique of pulling a file sideways across a workpiece to leave a smoother finish than ordinary push-filing. Used on iron tires after hammering, on plowshares, and on any forged piece that needs to look finished.
- Drover
- A man who drove livestock — usually cattle, sometimes sheep or hogs — overland to market. On a Texas trail drive, the drovers were the riders working the herd; the teamsters drove the chuck wagon. Different jobs, different skills.
E
- Elm
- The traditional wood for wagon-wheel hubs. Elm's interlocked grain makes it nearly impossible to split — exactly what you want in the hub, where a dozen spokes are driven in under pressure. Dutch elm disease wiped out most American elm by the 1970s.
F
- Felloe
- Pronounced 'felly.' One of the curved wooden segments that form the rim of a wagon wheel. A typical wheel has six or seven felloes, each spanning two spokes. The iron tire is shrunk on around the felloes to bind the whole wheel together.
- Forge
- The blacksmith's hearth — a coal or coke fire with an air blast from a bellows or blower. The fire heats iron to a working temperature, somewhere between red-hot and white-hot depending on the job. A wagon-shop forge sits at chest height and is the loudest place in the building.
- Froe
- An L-shaped splitting tool with a blade and a perpendicular handle, used to rive (split) straight-grained wood into shingles, staves, or rough wheel-spoke blanks. You drive the froe with a wooden mallet, then twist the handle to pop the split open.
- Fuller
- A blacksmith's tool — a rounded bar held on the anvil — used to spread or shape hot iron, or to make grooves. Also the verb: to 'fuller' a piece is to work it with this tool.
H
- Hame
- One of the two curved wood-and-iron pieces that strap onto a horse collar and provide the anchor points for the traces. The hames distribute the pull and keep the collar from collapsing onto the horse's windpipe.
- Hammer
- The smith's primary tool. A cross-pein hammer is standard at the anvil; a sledge is for heavy work; a setting hammer is for finish. Most blacksmiths have a dozen hammers and a favorite they reach for without looking.
- Hardy
- A chisel that fits upright in the square hole of an anvil (the 'hardy hole'), cutting-edge up. The smith lays hot iron across it and strikes from above to part the metal. Named after the hardy hole, not the other way around.
- Harness
- The collected leather rig — collar, hames, traces, breeching, britchen, surcingle, bridle — that connects a draft animal to a wagon. A full harness for a team of four can weigh sixty pounds and represents a year's wages in the 1880s.
- Hickory
- The toughest of the common American hardwoods, used for spokes, axe handles, and anywhere a part has to take repeated shock without cracking. Shagbark hickory is the gold standard. Wheelwrights say a hickory spoke will outlast the wagon around it.
- Hub
- The central block of a wagon wheel, into which the spokes are driven. Traditionally turned from elm. The hub bears every pound of load on that corner of the wagon and rotates around the axle through a bearing surface called the box or skein.
K
- Kingpin
- The vertical bolt that connects the front bolster to the front axle, allowing the front wheels to swivel for steering. The phrase 'linchpin' is often confused with kingpin — they're different parts, but both became metaphors for 'the critical piece.'
L
- Linchpin
- The small pin or wedge driven through the end of an axle to keep the wheel from sliding off. Lose the linchpin and you lose the wheel — which is why the word came to mean any small but essential element holding a larger thing together.
- Locust
- Black locust is one of the most rot-resistant native American hardwoods, prized for fence posts, treenails, and any wagon part that lives in contact with damp ground. Locust trunnels (treenails) outlast the wood they join.
M
- Maul
- A heavy wooden or iron hammer used for splitting wood, driving wedges, or pounding stakes. A splitting maul has a wedge-shaped head; a wheelwright's maul is rounded for striking chisels and froes without mushrooming them.
- Mortise
- A rectangular hole cut into one piece of wood to receive a corresponding tongue (tenon) on another piece. The mortise-and-tenon joint is the backbone of wagon-bed construction — locked with a trunnel, it'll outlast iron fasteners.
- Mule-skinner
- A teamster who drove mules, particularly the long strings of 8, 10, or 12 mules used to haul ore wagons and heavy freight in the American West. The term 'skinner' refers to the long whip he used to crack the lead animals into line.
N
- Nave
- An older English term for the hub of a wheel. Same part, older word — still used by traditional wheelwrights in Britain. The architectural 'nave' of a church comes from the same root: the central hub of the building.
O
- Outfit
- On a trail drive, the whole working group: the trail boss, the cowhands, the wrangler, the cookie, the remuda, and the chuck wagon. By extension, any cowboy's personal gear. 'Riding for the outfit' meant total loyalty to the brand you worked for.
P
- Prairie schooner
- A smaller, lighter version of the Conestoga used by westbound settlers. The white canvas top, billowing in the wind, looked from a distance like a ship's sail — hence 'schooner.' Most schooners were pulled by oxen, not horses, because oxen could eat grass.
R
- Reach
- The long timber connecting the front and rear running gear of a wagon, running underneath the bed. The reach holds the two axle assemblies in proper alignment. Adjusting the reach lengthened or shortened the wagon's wheelbase.
- Reins
- The leather lines running from the teamster's hands to the bits of the lead horses. On a six-up or eight-up team, the lead reins control direction; the teamster relies on voice and whip for the wheelers.
- Running gear
- The wheels, axles, bolsters, and reach — everything underneath the wagon bed that moves and turns. Traditionally painted red on a Conestoga. The running gear is the chassis; the bed is the body.
S
- Schooner cover
- The white canvas top stretched over hickory bows that gave the prairie schooner its name. The canvas was waterproofed with linseed oil or rendered fat. At night, families slept under it; in rain, it kept the flour dry.
- Setting the tire
- The traditional process of fitting an iron tire to a wooden wheel. The tire is heated red-hot in a ring fire, hammered onto the wheel, then doused with water. The iron contracts as it cools, squeezing the wooden felloes and spokes together with tremendous force. Done right, a set tire lasts decades.
- Shrink-fit
- Any joint made by heating an outer piece, slipping it over an inner piece, and letting it cool. Setting a wagon tire is a shrink-fit. So is shrinking a hub band onto a wooden hub. Iron's expansion coefficient is the wheelwright's friend.
- Singletree
- Also called a whippletree or whiffletree. The pivoting crossbar to which a single horse's traces attach. The singletree swings as the horse walks, evening out the pull. Two singletrees attach to a doubletree for a pair of horses.
- Slack tub
- The barrel of water beside the forge where the smith quenches hot iron, cools tongs, and douses sparks. Traditionally a half-barrel — coopered from oak. Every smith has stories about what gets dropped into the slack tub.
- Spoke
- One of the radial wooden bars connecting the hub to the felloes. Spokes are split from hickory, shaped with a drawknife, then driven into the hub under heavy pressure. A standard wagon wheel has 12 to 16 spokes.
- Spokeshave
- A small two-handled tool — like a miniature drawknife with an adjustable blade — used to shape and smooth spokes after they're roughed out. The name says it: a shave for spokes.
- Spring wagon
- A light wagon with leaf springs between the bed and the axles, giving a smoother ride than a buckboard or freight wagon. Country doctors, peddlers, and rural mail carriers favored them.
- Stage wagon
- An open or partly covered passenger wagon used on short-haul routes where a full Concord coach would be overkill. Cheaper to build, easier to repair, harder on the passengers.
- Steam box
- A long wooden box, sealed at the ends, fed with steam from a boiler. Wheelwrights and boatbuilders use a steam box to soften wood — usually oak or ash — until it can be bent around a form without breaking. Felloes, wagon bows, and ship ribs all start in the steam box.
- Steam-bending
- The process of bending wood by softening it with steam, then forcing it around a form and clamping it until it dries to shape. The cell structure relaxes under heat and moisture, then locks into the new curve as it cools.
- Studebaker
- The Studebaker brothers began as South Bend, Indiana wagon-makers in 1852 and grew into the largest wagon manufacturer in the world before transitioning to automobiles. A Studebaker farm wagon was the Toyota pickup of its day.
- Stuffing the felloe
- The wheelwright's term for driving the tenons of the spokes into the felloes. The felloe is mortised to accept the spoke ends, and the spokes are 'stuffed' home with a beetle. Done right, the joint is tight enough to ring.
- Surcingle
- The strap running across a horse's back and around its barrel that holds the harness in place. Without the surcingle, the breeching sags and the whole rig works against itself.
- Swage
- A shaped die used by blacksmiths to form curves and profiles in hot iron. A swage block sits on the floor with various concave and convex forms cast into it. Top and bottom swages work in pairs at the anvil.
T
- Tenon
- The projecting tongue of wood cut on the end of one piece to fit into the mortise of another. Spoke tenons fit into hub and felloe mortises. The tighter the tenon, the longer the wheel lives.
- Tire (iron)
- The continuous band of iron — later steel — shrunk onto the outside of a wooden wagon wheel. The iron tire protects the wood, distributes the load, and (most importantly) binds the felloes and spokes together under permanent compression. Not the same as a rubber tire, though that's where the word came from.
- Tire bender
- A hand-cranked machine with three rollers that bends a straight iron bar into a circle for use as a wagon-wheel tire. Before tire benders were common, smiths bent tires by eye, around stakes driven into the shop floor.
- Tongs
- The smith's pliers — long iron handles with jaws shaped to grip various stock sizes. A working smith has fifteen or twenty pairs of tongs, each made or modified for a particular job. Tongs that don't fit the work will burn your hand.
- Tongue
- The long timber projecting forward from the front of the wagon to which the team is hitched. The tongue takes the pull of the team and also helps steer — when the team turns, the tongue pivots and drags the front wheels around. Traditionally ash or hickory.
- Traces
- The straps or chains running from the horse's collar back to the singletree, carrying the actual pulling force. 'Kicking over the traces' means a horse has gotten a leg outside the rig — and metaphorically, anyone breaking the rules.
- Traveler
- A small hand-held wheel on a handle, used by wheelwrights to measure the circumference of a wagon wheel by rolling it around the rim — and then around the iron tire blank — to make sure the tire will be slightly shorter than the wheel for a proper shrink-fit.
- Treenail
- Pronounced and often spelled 'trunnel.' A wooden peg, usually locust or oak, driven through a joint to lock it together. Treenails predate iron nails by millennia and outlast them in wet environments.
- Trunnel
- See treenail. The everyday spoken form. A wagon-bed corner pinned with three locust trunnels will hold long after iron nails have rusted to powder.
- Tuyère
- Pronounced 'tweer.' The pipe through which the bellows or blower delivers air to the forge fire. The tuyère is the only part of the forge that gets really hot from the inside, and most are water-cooled or made of heavy cast iron.
W
- Wagon bed
- The box-shaped body of the wagon that sits on top of the running gear and holds the load. A standard farm-wagon bed measured about 10 feet long, 38 inches wide, and 16 inches deep. Sideboards could be added to raise the walls for hauling grain or hay.
- Wagon box
- Two meanings: (1) another term for the wagon bed; (2) the iron sleeve inside the wooden hub that the axle turns in. Context tells you which is meant.
- Wheel
- The whole rotating assembly: hub, spokes, felloes, and iron tire. A well-built wagon wheel is one of the most efficient structures in pre-industrial engineering — every part is in compression, every joint locked by the shrunk-on tire.
- Wheelwright
- A craftsman who builds and repairs wagon wheels. A trained wheelwright has to be part carpenter, part blacksmith, and part engineer. The trade was once so common that 'Wright' became one of the most frequent surnames in English.
- Whippletree
- Same part as a singletree — the pivoting crossbar that attaches to a horse's traces. Also spelled 'whiffletree.' A type of tree (Viburnum lentago) was named for it because its straight, springy young stems were used to make them.
- White oak
- The wheelwright's preferred wood for felloes and wagon-bed framing. White oak's closed cell structure resists water, and its strength along the grain is hard to beat. Red oak looks similar but soaks up water like a sponge — don't confuse them.