These are spokes for a 200+ year old spinning wheel that I am repairing for the museum where I volunteer. It is a quite primitive walking or great wheel. Several of the spokes for the wheel have been broken off and crudely repaired over the centuries, I'm trying to do a proper job, conserving as much old material as possible (making new spokes would be trivial, but not in the spirit of the thing).

The tenons are broken off where the spokes are set into the hub. You can see they are about 6-8 mm in diameter at that end and some have cracks running into the spoke.

My first thought is to attempt to drill into the end of the spoke to make a socket, into which I can set a dowel made from matching wood and recreate the tenon that fits into the hub. My second thought is to cut the spoke at an angle and scarf a new piece of wood on that I can form the tenon on.

With the first method I have the seemingly difficult task of drilling a relatively large diameter hole straight into the end grain of a narrow diameter spoke, complicated by the fact that not all the spokes are as straight as the ones in the picture; they will be challenging to mount in a lathe. The second approach will be a more obvious repair and will cause me to lose some of the visible old wood.

Any suggestions for a third thought? Any advice on the best way to drill into the narrow end of the spoke? I thought I might hand drill a small pilot hole (or rig up a drill press jig that will hold at least that end of the spoke parallel with the drill) and then follow it with progressively larger bits.

This won't be used on a regular basis, but we do have someone who would like to demonstrate it, so it needs to be more than just held together cosmetically, if not as strong as new.

Thanks for your thoughts!

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