The Best Way to Display Your Ship's Wheel in Your Home, Restaurant & Office

  One of the questions most asked from our customers throughout the years, is how to best display their ship's wheel in their home, seafood restaurant or professional office. Typically, one would drill screw holes through their wheel or hang them using large mounting hooks. Unfortunately, the first display idea damages the wheel. The second can work as long as you can find big enough hooks to fit the depth of the wheel. That also brings us to our resolve. About ten years ago, we approached a friend who was also a part-time blacksmith. We came up with the idea of large steel hooks, big enough in diameter to use for mounting ship's wheels, large ship's oars and other nautical, maritime, marine items that need a large hook for display.

A lifeboat oar is hung 
using a steel display
hook.

Our pair of large hand-forged wrought iron display hooks measures 4 inches high, 3.5 inches deep, with a 2.25 inch inside diameter. Black painted finish. They are sold as a pair. A single screw is needed for each hook. Make sure to mount them into wood or an vertical 2 X 4 to hold the weight.

Skipjack's steel display hooks for ship's
wheels, oars or other large hanging items.

                                                                                                                                

skipjack's custom made ship's wheel
display hub.

We then came up with a better mounting choice using our ship's wheel hub wall
mounting bracket. Welded steel ship's wheel mounting wall bracket with threaded rod and large fastening nut to secure the wheel on to the bracket. Four mounting holes on backplate. Minimum ship wheel hub opening 15/16" and larger. Accommodates maximum wheel thickness of 3-3/8".

Shown below are a few examples of ship's wheels mounted using our ship's wheel hub. This hub can also be used for mounting wagon wheels or other items with a center hole that you want to display. Interested? Here's the link to our ship's wheel category on  Skipjack's website.  

Antique ship's wheel displayed on a
wooden wall using the wheel hub.

A WWII era ship's wheel is displayed
on a helm station pedestal using a wheel hub.

Skipjack Nautical Wares and Marine Art Gallery is located in the quaint fishing village of Round Pond, Maine. They are open year round by appointment. You can schedule a visit by calling us at 207-219-0897 or by emailing us at www.skipjacknauticalwares.com. visit our website 24/7 at www.skipjacknauticalwares.com. Have a great day. Hope to see you soon!

At the Helm

I particularly like this vignette contrived totally of Skipjack inventory with the bronze sculpture titled "At the Helm" by William Barth Osmundsen, sculpturer, in the foreground and the antique ship's wheel centered on the rustic barn wood wall behind.

A pair of custom made nautical lamps made from 1970's vintage brass navigational lights flanks a scratch-built model of a Chesapeake Bay "Deadrise" by Edward R. Payne from Urbanna, Virginia. The lamps retain their original red and green removable lens and we've added ballast that turn the lamp on and controls the intensity of the interior lights and a three way switch that operates independently to control the room lighting. These lamps come with burlap covered lampshades and are mounted on to thick pine wooden bases. Standing 34 inches tall, they are perfect for a lot of applications where you need a matching pair of nautical lights.

The lamps sit upon a pedestal table with the top being a large ship's window with thick glass and heavy brass frame measuring 31 X 67 inches with curved corners and mounted onto painted wood pedestals.

The large mahogany and oak ship's wheel comes to us from the Raymond Squires Maritime Collection. The wheel is believed to be American and is from the second half of the 19th century. It features eight ring-turned spokes and the outer wheel appears to be made from ash. Measuring 46 inches in diameter, it retains a great old weathered finish and patina.

The bronze sculpture "At the Helm"stands in the center of a glass top replica ship's wheel coffee table. The first of the lost wax bronzes, was presented by HM King Olav V of Norway as the City of Oslo Award to the captain and crew of the full-rigged tall ship Christian Radich. This vigorous bronze by William Barth Osmundsen, has found a permanent and appropriate place in the aft saloon of this majestic Norwegian sailing vessel. It was on her decks during OpSail 76 that Osmundsen was inspired to undertake a series of "Bronzes from the Sea." There are nine subjects extant, all of which have been shown in New York, Houston and Oslo. "At the Helm". Bronze. Wheel diameter measures 15 inches. Mounted on Pakistanian marble. This bronze is signed by the artist and numbered 1/125.

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