Hi John

Fort William by Thunder Bay, has a lot of old equipment and knowledge,
I have been there, and they do have a lathe, but I don't remember if
this was still a original one or build to old specs.

Here's a link
http://www.fwhp.ca/take_a_tour.html

There was a wheelwright -- wagon maker living across from the place I
was born and grew-up, there was an old wood lathe, used a wagon wheel
as flywheel, I know they used it with 2 persons, one powering the wheel
and one turning, even though I don't recall ever seeing them using it.
I think that most of those lathes were home build on site, and the
flywheel use was preferred over the pole lathe, for the continues
direction made turning easier and faster.
I don't think the lathe is still there, as the last owner of the shop
past away a few years ago, and the house and shop was sold I think.

Have fun and take care
Leo Van Der Loo


John wrote:
Other than at Williamsburg and Sturbridge, are there any genuine 18th
century lathes in existence elsewhere in North America, preferably ones
that have detailed online photos available for viewing, that one can
look at. I kind of like the idea of peregrinating about the eastern half
of this continent but I just don't have the time to visit more than one
or two distant museums this coming year so I'd like to narrow my search
to the most promising ones. My search is specific to the 18th Century.
My Google and other Internet scrounging has unearthed a bunch of modern
day adaptations but the museum folk I'm working with are very much
concerned about creating as authentic a reproduction as humanly
possible, and for that we need some genuine real articles to emulate.
These historians love their documentation at least as much as their
museum pieces, I'm afraid. ;-) We're not particularly interested in the
"great wheel" lathes but more humble town and village types that were
presumably as common as dirt at one time but which seem not to have
survived in the larger, well known museums.

Thanks,

J.