This is Justin’s wife using his account to see if I can get some help with a tough problem. We just aqcuired some nautical instruments off of his late Grandfathers boat. I don’t know what they are called and I can’t get to them right now without tipping him off to my plans. They are small enough to be held but very heavy, and their shape reminds me of the steering wheel on a river boat or pirate ship. He spent many wonderful summers on the ocean with his Grandfather and I would love to be able to present them to him for Christmas, cleaned and able to be displayed. I have a maximum budget of about $150-200. We live in Salem, Oregon about an hour south of Portland and an hour north of Eugene. If anyone out there knows of a place that can help me out I would be forever grateful. Thanks!
I think we’ll need some more hints as to what they are. For instance ships’ barometers can be wheel-shaped with spokes, but a barometer is not for nautical use only. Same would apply to a ships’ clock.
Are you asking where to get them cleaned? If the latter the answer would be a ships’ chandlery or an antique store that specialises in instruments (rather than furniture).
Restoration and polishing service
I have no affiliation with this company, and know nothing about them, but it’s the only one I could find that offered nautical restoration service. There’s an e-mail link and phone number on the site if you want to explore futher.
And This site lists a number of metal restorers. Scroll about 2/3 of the way down the very long page to find the metals section.
It lists: NORTHWEST ART OBJECTS CONSERVATION
221 SE 11th Ave
PORTLAND, OR 97214
503/288-8414 800/714-843
in the middle of the Pennysylvania section under metals. (Looks like the toll-free number is missing a digit)
Very shortly you are likely to discover just how close an eye your husband keeps on these boards, and how quickly he’s going to notice a thread “he started”.
