Hello all. I just today received another early E-Type wheel for restoration and it reminded me of this earlier attempt to provide the E folks with information.
David: Thanks for your message. I didn’t see it before now - maybe I don’t have notification turned on. In any case, thanks for that historical information.
Beech was a widely used wood for rims in England. The beech that was used was European beech which is slightly different from the beech here in the states. I figured it was chosen for its excellent bending characteristics. During the early '50s Coventry Timber Bending (CTB) used beech for their D-Type rims and for the rims they made for the Austin-Healey 100S cars. Additionally, they made beech rims in the early '60s for some special MGA wheels. There was at least one other company, Woodrims Limited (of Slough), who made beech rings for Peter Springall to use for his rims - mostly Lotus, but some aftermarket too.
When the early S1 E-Type wheels were made by CTB, they chose to use beech, but not exclusively as many of you believe. I am aware “it was written” in a book and many consider that the definitive word, but I am also aware of many other examples of incorrect or incomplete entries in books about various car marques. I’ll comment further, but first a few more words about the use of mahogany.
Victor Derrington used mahogany for his steering wheel rims starting in or around 1954, the date of his initial patent filing. His rims were made of (sapele) mahogany and obeechi (obeeche,obeche). He also advertised using white sycamore (really a maple) in place of the obeechi. Most, if not all I have seen have been mahogany and obeechi. Obeechi must have been a very cheap alternative to something better, like beech or maple. While I’m not aware of the years Walsall Wheels operated, they used mahogany exclusively from what I have seen. Walsall was the maker of the Les Leston line of steering wheels and they also made wheels to sell as just Walsall.
Now back to CTB and the jaguar E-Type wheels. While CTB did use beech for the early E-Type rims, most of what I have seen here from wheels sent to me for restoration have been mahogany. I have no idea how many of each of the two woods were made, only what I have personally seen. I have had at least a dozen, probably more, here over the past 15 years that I have been doing this work. Rest assured I do know woods and I do know how to distinguish the differences. Beech and mahogany are quite different from each other. It is not only the color, but the character of the grain, and in particular, the ray flake on the quartersawn angle is distinctive.
I have further information based on several mahogany rims. While some were simple mahogany wrappings (process for creating rings), others were more fancy. I speculate that the people (or person) making the rings at CTB had creative moments. Some of these mahogany rims featured different color mahogany, resulting in attractive patterns. This technique was not exclusive to CTB - it was also done by Walsall and it is a defining characteristic to Carlotti rims (although the Carlotti most often used a combination of mahogany and beech to create the patterns).
I think it is not likely that the rim makers were instructed to do this since the rims weren’t all precisely the same. Some used double dark strips and some just single strip dark. The first time I saw it I thought it an anomaly, but now realize it was done quite frequently. The wheel I received today is an example of the mahogany rim with two dark wood strips used to create the stripes.
I presume most of you know the basic differences between the early CTB wheels and the common ones that followed. For those that don’t, and aside from wood species, the CTB rims were shaped in rounded style rather than the thumb groove on the common wheels. CTB rims were 3/4 wraps, meaning the inside metal rim was exposed. The common wheels had full wraps where wood covered all sides of the internal metal rim. The finger grips were also different with the CTB using a four repeat pattern.
Now if I can figure out how to post some pictures, I will show you this latest wheel to arrive and an area of it where I have cleaned the patina to expose the wood pattern. This rim is missing the outermost stip of wood. In one picture I have wetted it to enhance the color differences. I have written this message and taken the pictures as a service to this community. My intent is only to provide you with accurate information on a subject not well understood. I hope this is of some value.
Gallery here - pictures will be added when restoration complete: http://www.pbase.com/mdlempert/s1jag2
Another example from some years ago: http://www.pbase.com/mdlempert/s1jag
Here a simple mahogany version: http://www.pbase.com/mdlempert/invent3b
Regards,
Mike Lempert
http://www.lempertwheels.com