New Wheel: 1996 J. Franzek Country Craftsman

Did I tell you all I was going to buy this wheel? I may have forgotten to mention it out of embarrassed greed, but I did. Take a look...

My precccciousssss

By golly is she beautiful. You'll remember a couple weeks back my stepmother had me pick up a Country Craftsman wheel she bought with her friend in mind. Well the two of us absolutely fell in love with this wheel. The Country Craftsman wheels are big, sturdy things that spin smooth as silk. I often find when I'm using my Prelude that if the dog or cats move too fast that poor little wheel will tip right over. This one... this one isn't going anywhere. I saw her for sale on Craigslist and mentioned it to Jackie who was like, "Go. Buy it." I dithered for a bit, making foolish excuses about already having two wheels and not having space until I move into my house. "You can keep it at Jaime's," said Jackie, selflessly volunteering my boyfriend as a storage depot. "If you don't get it, I think you'll regret it."

I had to admit she was right and so Saturday morning I packed Jaime into a car and drove off for a blind date with my new love - a 1996 J. Franzek County Craftsman wheel. She's only got one bobbin and I'm pulling some strings to fix that (I know a crafter who'll tide me over until my dad gets the 3D printer I plan to use shamelessly) but my fingers itch to finish all my other projects so that we can be together with the shiny new Midnight Blue batts the lovely indie dyer Julia sent me as part of a swap. More about those later. :D

What's interesting is comparing my CC wheel to Jackie's.

Jackie's CC - A J. Rooney

The Country Craftsman wheels were made by J. Rooney, who started making decorative display wheels until he realized people actually wanted to spin. He went to work studying and eventually started producing the CCs we love today - replicas of a 1700s saxony flax wheel. He produced the wheels by himself until 1972 when Franzek joined him, taking over the business when Rooney retired in 82. Franzek continued to produce the CC wheel until 2003, when he also retired.

My wheel has a name and date carved into the bottom so I know it was made in November in 1996 by J. Franzek. Jackie's wheel has no dated, only a J. Rooney name carving. So we know her wheel was made by the original crafter... sometime between 1971 and 1982. I'm interested in narrowing down that time range a bit so I'm trying to find more information on the CC wheels, what sort of stylistic changes were made over the years and what woods they preferred working in. So far I'm thinking Jackie's wheel is from later in Rooney's career as it has 12 spokes and I've heard that Rooney started with 13 spokes and by the time Franzek took over, the 12 spokes were standard.

Fetch me a deerstalker hat and pipe, I'm on the case!