Wagon Wheel Traveler Tool Antique Wheelwright Tire Measuring

This traveler tool is a wagon wheel tire measure was used by wheelwrights or blacksmiths to determine the circumference of the wooden wagon wheel in order to make the iron tire for the wheel to the right size. This tool is ideal to measure the length of a curved board or surface, so boat builders and coopers sometimes used travelers as well.

This late Victorian to 1900 era cast iron traveler looks to be a 2-foot measure with about a 7 3/4 inch diameter travelling iron wheel. It has a movable end marking dial. The handle might be hand forged. It has some remnants of its original paint still visible, giving a sense of what it looked like new. One side of the wheel was painted red, and the working side had only one spoke painted red. The fork of the handle and dial pointer were painted black, and the tip of the pointer might have been painted white. Has some old rust, and the non-painted measuring side of the dial could be cleaned with steel wool and oil to make the inch and 1/8 inch marks more readable.