Using a tool called a spoke-dog – a three-foot long bar of ash with an iron hook on the end – Phill pressed each pair of spokes together and tapped the felloes on with a hammer. Wooden wedges, with a bit of Phill’s spit, were driven into the exposed end of the spoke tangs, to keep the wheel bound until it was hooped. The last felloe was measured, cut, drilled and fitted. Metal slips were tacked in across the felloe-joints, to keep the wheel in line. The outside or ‘sole’ of the felloes were bevelled, ready for hooping. Using an instrument called a ‘Traveller’, Phill measured the outer circumference of the wheel. He scratched a figure in pencil on the white ash, straightened his back, clasped the wheel in both hands and said: ‘We’re done.’