Norwegian wheels come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. This one is a “double-table” wheel, a style commonly found in Norway.

But it has several interesting features that make it stand out–its size, festive paint, handwritten note, and fixes.

Size-wise, it is petite compared to most double table wheels. It is more compact and lightweight, making it relatively easy to store and portable, attributes apparently prized in Norway, given the many different styles of slanty wheels made there.

Painted a dark greenish-blue, almost every surface is decorated with red and white designs, which really pop in contrast with the deep background color.

Even the spokes have white stripes running their length–many hard to see through fading.

The hub has an odd wave–like surface.

The footman is ornate

and the treadle is nicely contoured to fit exactly next to the leg.

The tension knob was either unpainted or the paint has worn off.

The treadle is worn

and the paint is mostly worn of of the front maiden.

The back maiden has a recess for the whorl, either through wear or made intentionally.

The underside of the table is painted.

As is the under-table nut tightening the MOA.

The rim of the drive wheel looks like beautiful snakeskin.

A piece had been broken off the rim and repainted with a blue paint that does not match the original.

The name of the owner is painted on the top, “Turi Torkelsdatter,”

along with a place name, “Nore,” and date “1863.”

But what sets the wheel apart is a small piece of paper covered with glass sitting in the middle of the table.

The paper is wrinkled now and the handwriting faded.

But what a treasure. A note came with the wheel from a previous owner saying that the rough translation of the script is: “For: Turi Torkelsdatter Year: 1863 Place: Nore Valley Norway Made by: Olev Seilsen in 1861.” I cannot read Norwegian and much of the writing is hard to make out. It is pretty easy to make out the “Turi Torkelsdatter,” although there is a word after it that looks like it could be “Harigan” or “Haugan.”

Also, the name of the maker is here. I believe that the name is actually “Ole Neilsen,” because what looks like it could be a “v” at the end on “Ole” is really just a swirl on a capital “N.”

In researching online, I did find several Ole Neilsens who lived in the Nore Valley through the years, although nothing indicating that any of them might have made wheels.

I also found several Turi Torkelsdatters in genealogy sites, but I do not have access to international searches so was not able to pin down this particular Turi.

Nevertheless, what a valuable piece of paper–I am grateful to Ole Neilsen for taking the time to document this wheel. Did he do so out of pride in his beautiful creation, to celebrate Turi, or both? Perhaps someone with the resources could track down more about Ole and Turi.

Whoever Turi was, she, and the women who inherited this wheel, used it well and took great pains to keep it spinning. It is a fantastic example of make-do fixes. The front maiden is bound at the bottom with a thick string.

The back axle is bound with what looks like linen tape and secured with nails.

In fact, nails abound.

They are found here in one of the secondary tension screws.

But the biggest nest of nails was hidden. When I got the wheel, it spun okay, but the flyer was a bit funky, turning with a wobbly, thump-ity feel to to it. The whorl looked as if it was a bit askew. I carefully unscrewed it (as an aside, as with many Norwegian wheels, it screws righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, in contrast to most North American wheels) and found this.

I imagine they were to keep the whorl nut in place, but sadly, it is loose again and the nails seem to give an odd unbalanced weight to the whorl. Interestingly, the whorl end of the mandrel shows uneven wear, with one side grooved more deeply than the other.

So, perhaps this unbalanced whorl was used for a while. The flyer arms show grooves on both edges, with interesting deeper grooves right next to the hooks.

Because this flyer is such a marvelous piece of the wheel’s history, I wanted to keep it as is and not have it repaired.

But it spins a bit awkwardly and there is some slippage of the mandrel. I did not want things to get worse, so I found an extra flyer in my collection to replace the original for everyday spinning.

Although it is a very different design than the original, it works beautifully on this wheel, belying the oft-repeated mantra that you cannot substitute flyers on antique wheels.

I do it all the time with great success. On this wheel it was especially satisfying to find a good substitute since the clearance between the flyer arms and drive wheel is very narrow.

Happily, the substitute flyer looks nice and at home on the wheel.

And, as with all the previous fixes, it will allow this wheel to spin on, without erasing any of its history.