and we decided to take a little trip. Once we reached the destination, it was much colder and windier than at home, so the walking was cut much shorter than we had thought.
When we saw the sign to a flea market we hadn't been to, we went there instead.
On top of a shelf I spotted something
It lacked one of the flyers, the paint job was sloppy and it was too expensive for a decrepit, albeit interesting, spinning wheel. Then I spotted the other flyer, found that the bobbin turned freely and the drive pulley screw was not rusted - and it was threaded for spinning S.
So I took it down.
Everything that should turn, turned. Some things not supposed to move, moved a bit too much, but on the whole, it seemed to be (nearly) in working order.
It came home with me.
On further examination, the paint job was more than sloppy, and also consisted of at least two different paints. The outer white flakes, under that there is another (whiter) white. In some places the inner white has flaked, too - there seems to be a reddish paint under that.
At least the outer white was painted on without disassembling, but I managed to unscrew the flyer assembly with patience and some grease.
The missing left flyer's what's-it-called (the leather pieces) will take some fiddling to replace, as they, too, are "painted in".
Also the drive wheels will not come off, because they are secured in place with nails in the back, and one of the, hm, "stops" on the front is missing, too.
The "accelerating" drive wheels are interesting. I have seen something like this many years ago in Ångermanland (which, perhaps, tallies with the "prime linens"... Grenander wrote some about double-flyer wheels, but of course I have returned the book now. Maybe I have to borrow it again...). If I measured correctly, the fast wheel has a ratio of 2,5 compared to the slow.
I suppose this is the tensioner for the drive band. It moves freely, fastens with a wedge. (Hmm - wedge? Really?) But how it the drive band supposed to go - over or under? If it goes under, it is difficult to replace, as the pulley doesn't come out?
And, at the back there is this little thing, about 7-8 cm, pivoting not-quite-in-the-middle. What can it be?
The wheel has a couple of reparations done to it - one of the flyer uprights has a piece replaced, one of the flyer uprights has a new finial and the distaffs are slightly different.
And the flyers are painted, too. Even the hooks.
3 comments:
This looks like a fun project! I'm not a spinner, so I can't speak to your questions about the wheel. But, do you know of Florence Feldman-Woods? She has a periodical called "The Spinning Wheel Sleuth" (it has a web page) I've seen a couple interesting presentations on odd wheels that she's done.
I love the 'peg in hole' drive system! But why would you need two distaffs?
"need" I don't know - but they *are* there (and this construction would look very unbalanced with only one)
I have been googling double flyer wheels since yesterday, and come to the conclusion that Am DFWs, generally speaking, are different from European.
At a Convergence sometime in the 90ies, I tried out a DFW - and I've wanted one since then... if only to prove it is possible to use one.
Hi, found you through your link on Ravelry. There are theories that some double flyer wheels were used by 2 spinners - could explain 2 distaffs (if true). I have 2 D F wheels working and 2 needing renovation, but none are accelerating wheels. Looks like the painter was not interested in the function of the wheel, only apprearance. There is one on e-bay UK at the moment painted like this, even all the moving parts, obviously just for decoration.
Post a Comment