Wooden Wheelbarrow

I recently acquired several old iron wheelbarrow wheels. I used old designs to make two wheelbarrows. The first one I made was from red cedar. However, the one in this picture was made from red oak boards sawed from trees on the farm and hand planed. The handles on this particular one are made from oak plow handles. This design usually has side boards and was called a garden or yard barrow useful for hauling dirt and vegetation. This one does not have side boards making it more useful for hauling firewood or stones. Around the farm we find wheelbarrows very useful in making our work easier.

The earliest wheelbarrows date back to 118 AD and are attributed to the Chinese. In Europe the first wheelbarrows appeared around 1170 AD. This wheelbarrow is more typical of the European design rather than the Chinese.