Picture of the intricaty crafted brakes on a Sicilian cart

Here is the typical brake on one of Raffaele La Scala's Sicilian carts. What's tricky about this whole process is getting the iron rim on the wooden wheel. The wheel is made of a dozen sections. They are held together by the ring, which is assembled onto the wheel by heating the iron for many hours in a fire, then attaching it to the wheel. This is a three person--or in the case of the La Scala family--a three generation operation. While two men get the rim around the wheel aligned, a third runs around pouring water on the whole assembly; the wheel bursts into fire immediately on contact with the red-hot iron. It is this cooling-off process that slowly shrinks the iron onto the outside of the wheel.