Restoration of a French Black Marble/Slate Clock

This clock was in rather a sorry state having been sat in a damp environment, and had not been working for a few decades. None the less it has sentimental value to the owner, who wanted the clock to be restored throughout. These black cases can be challenging to restore depending upon the fading and oxidation. 

A closer picture shows that the clock has a Brocot Open  Escapement. This is an attractive feature on a clock such as this, adding an interesting element to its aesthetics. Though the escapement parts, not to mention the dial and bezel parts, are in an ugly state of tarnish, dirt and repair. The door has broken away from the bezel, and has been lost.

The case gave a good indication of what sort of state the movement was likely to be. This is a French movement by Samuel Marti & Cie, Paris. Typical of the movements made by French movement manufacturers of the time, who generally produced movements of good quality. That said, in my experience, I have often found that the main wheel/spring barrel arbour pivot surfaces on French movements can tend to fall short in terms of a quality finish, compared to the other pivot surfaces.

The movement in this clock has a great deal of corrosion on the steel arbours, pinions and pivots. Hidden under a layer of dirt and grime that is. Clear evidence of rust on the winding squares foretold a story of corrosion through out. I would strongly discourage the use of 'off the shelf' rust inhibitors that can be bought from vehicle accessory shops. These are likely to leave a hard black layer of black oxide on the surface of the steel, which can be extremely difficult to remove. Evaporust was used on this movements, along with plenty of brushing, followed by polishing. 

All the usual service jobs were carried out once the parts were in a better state, as well as other repairs which included the need to re-pivot the escapement wheel arbour. The pivot was corroded beyond resurfacing, polishing and burnishing. The escapement required new pallet jewels fitting and setting up. The anchor on which the jewels are mounted in the open escapement had had its span widened inappropriately before now, and also the adjuster that changes the depth of the pallet jewels into the escapement wheel had been abused with an incorrectly sized screw driver and the groove was partially destroyed. Adjusting the depth was a challenge. 

After much work  the movement was up an running on a test stand, and I could turn my attention to the case. Much time was spent thoroughly cleaning the case. Painstaking was the removal of hardened grime in the recessed detail ornately carved into the case. Once the case was thoroughly clean and the top re-cemented back on, a few layers of pigment were applied, buffed and waxed. This took two coats of pigment, in a few places three. Once this was complete I was able to hand pain gilt lacquer back into the recessed detail, which finished of the case nicely. I sourced a replacement bezel and door, plus a replacement grommet for the winding hole.

Overall the clock came out well, with a great deal of work, and the sentimental value could be enjoyed again.

Restoration of a walnut veneered mantel clock

It was the Walnut finish of this simple mantel clock that caught my attention. Finished with fine brass inlay, the clock I feel has a Georgian appeal. Clearly its patina, and evidence of having spent some time without attention, had a great deal of appeal. 

Examination of the movement has led me, and other friends from the horological world, to question if this movement is an early Winterhalder and Hofmeier, or if it is an English movement. Winterhalder and Hofmeier are known to have copied some English movements in their production. So the jury is out, if anyone has any comments regarding this please do email me.

The case would receive limited attention in order to retain its original appeal, pic 2 below shows brass inlay missing. The glass was missing, and there is evidence on a previous attempt to clean the dial. Smudging of the paint can be at numbers 4,5 and 6.

                  

I noted that the stops works on the back plate of the movement, was damaged. The pictures below show that the pinion leafs have been filed off at some point. I would imagine that this was done to lengthen the running time of the clock. With the stop works complete it would run for approx 30hrs.

Whilst I appreciate the benefit of a longer running clock, sympathetically restoring to original where appropriate is preferred. To this end I handmade a replacement pinion for the stop works. The stops works would enable the movement to use a more consistent section of the springs power curve, by avoiding the use of the first two winds and the last few winds. So, in theory, be a better time keeper. Completed pinion below, with a hole for fitting to its post with a pin.

I heard some 'rattles' coming from the bottom of the case, and on closer inspection, I found a number of small brass teeth. This would explain why the winding arbour turned without resistance. They would be the teeth from the ratchet wheel, having suffered a spring incident. The pictures below show the state of the internal ratchet wheel, with missing teeth, and the 'hung' spring barrel. The 'hung barrel' is fixed to the clock plate.

  

I had a choice, whether to make a complete new unit of ratchet wheel and pipe, or use a new ratchet wheel and keep the original pipe. I chose the latter, though making a completely new unit would be quicker, keeping as many parts original is always the way forward where able. The pipe was mounted in a lathe, and the ratchet was cut off, up to the diameter of the pipe, in order to leave material to produce teeth to fit (rather like castle ramparts) into a new ratchet wheel. See pics below. Receiving slots were cut into the wheel to form a tight friction fit, which was strengthened by riveting and silver solder.

            

    

I wasn't expecting to find quite so much work needed on this time only piece. The escapement wheel had irreparable damage to it, with a few tooth tips broken. I also think that the teeth had been shortened at some point and  an attempt made with the anchor to match for geometry. These led to me making a new escapement wheel by hand. It can seen in the pic below that the wheels inner cut outs maintain a hand made sense. Following this I made a new anchor from flat tool steel stock. Following being satisfied the geometry was correct, the new anchor was hardened, polished and tempered.

The lantern pinions required re-trundling given there was wear on them. I will let some wear go with these, however as soon as they begin to look 'squared off' it's time to change them.

A new barrel spring hook was needed. It can be seen below that someone had attempted to solder the hook  in. It came out with a little wiggle. A new hook was made on the lathe and fitted to the barrel.

             

After some pivot hole re-bushing work, pivot polishing/burnishing and a new pivot fitted to the escapement wheel arbour, the movement was reassembled and tested. After some finer adjustments to the escapements drops, the movement runs well and has proved reliable.

               

As mentioned the case was to get a light touch. The shellac on the case is a little wrinkled but is acceptable. The case had a dust and wipe down with some alcohol, followed by a high quality wax. New brass inlay was fitted where it was missing and the case was complete. The smudging of the numerals on the dial was improved as much as possible and the hands and screws were cleaned, polished and re-blued by heat.

I spent a great deal of time on this clock, far exceeding its value! But I think it was worth it. Please do send me any comments or questions you have, thanks for reading.

Restoration of a Two Weight Vienna Clock Movement by H. Endler ca1877

                     

This is a fine movement, made by H Endler of Silesia ca 1877. Whilst told it was running when I got it, I did not attach the weights and pendulum and see for my self. The pivot holes were very dirty and dry. The pallet impulse faces looked nasty and there was a really horrible looking Rathburn type bushing attached to the back plate.

      

        

These are particularly frowned upon in the horological community. What a terrible shame that somebody did this to this fine movement.

Why?

Given no other bushing working had been done on the movement, and given the position of the Rathburn I can only surmise that, along with discussion with likeminded friends, that it was put there to aid assembly of the strike train. In that the gathering pallet arbour’s position could be adjusted post plate assemble in order to adjust the stop position of the gathering pallet, against the rack.

It can be seen that there are 3 holes left by the Rathburn in the plate. The smallest one was for a locating pin.

  

        

I decided to ream the largest hole, taking in the smallest hole with it, and reaming the other on its own. The reamer has a slight taper, allowing the use of a slightly tapered brass plug to be cold fitted/knocked in to the plate. Given the type of movement and where the pivot hole would be in the train i.e. quite high up, I wasn’t  concerned about the friction/load of the arbour popping the brass plug. The taper tight fit would be more than enough. However when gathering pallets are re-fitted to the end of their arbour, they may need a few gentle taps to home them, with a stake. This will put pressure on any bushing on the back plate, and can pop it out. Often clock menders will shim behind the shoulders of the arbour before re-fitting a gather pallet to avoid such an event.

I cut a small chamfer on the inside of the plate, second pic above, to the newly reamed larger hole. And peened into this, pic below. In the same way I would if installing main wheel bushes on a clock plate. Excess brass was removed to original level, and the finish restored.

                 

The new hole for the gathering pallet arbour’s pivot required spotting, so using a depthing gauge the spot where the new pivot hole go should be was marked.

It was drilled using a clock plate bushing tool. The plate could be fixed flat by the tools clamps, and the 0.72mm spade end pivot drill held by the mini chuck. This ensured a perpendicular and accurate entry into the spot punch mark, and ultimately a clean pivot hole.

          

Following the hole being smoothed, a new oil sink was cut and this task was complete, second pic above. The plate restored to its original appearance.

A couple of bushes were required for a few other pivot holes, however they were in generally good order. A few pivots were a little bent, probably from previous assembly with a little heavy handedness, they were all burnished.

It was apparent somebody had previously had an attempt at re-facing the impulse pallets. At magnification you can see the file marks and the uneven finish. Personally I think they were lucky the clock was running, apparently.

            

As described in the making of Vulliamy Pallet in another entry on this blog, the pallets must re-faced as perfectly as possible. At the correct angle, and polished to a mirror finish.

A small home made jig was used to fix the verge and pallets onto the cross slide of a watchmakers lathe, ensuring that the tangent line from the brass disc (24.30mm in diameter for this verge) remains in line with the refacing surface, until the surfaces were re-faced perfectly, using different grades of wheel. And finally polish with super fine compound on a buff felt wheel. You can see the difference the right technique makes.

                             

Following a few other service related jobs and repairs the movement was assembled and ready for testing. 

Update. The movement has been on test for two weeks now and has run perfectly, so it will be going back in to its case and on the wall.

Restoration of Gustav Becker Two Weight Vienna Wall Clock

                                               

I managed to get this attractive Gustav Becker for a very reasonable price. It was the price that made my decision, had it cost too much more I may not have bothered given the work required.

The crown at the the top of the clock and bottom pediment are not original to the clock. It is not too unusual for the crown to go missing on these, less usual to have the bottom pediment missing. In the picture above right, the rear of the replacement bottom pediment can be seen. It has been well made, though with ply wood and then veneered with English Oak as had the top crown.

Below is a picture of a very similar Gustav Becker Vienna, which I used as a reference when restoring this one. The crown and the bottom pediment can be seen to be very different to the replacements found on the clock above.

As would be expected, the movement is of a very good quality. Finely made with precision, though very dirty and very oily. After disassembling it was given a thorough clean and reassembled to observe for wear in the pivot holes and the pivots. Each component is carefully inspected under magnification, looking for wear, bent teeth or any signs of metal fatigue. These finer movements often do not need a great deal of bushing work carried out on the pivot holes, however notable wear was evident and a total of 12 pivot holes were re-bushed.

                                                                          

All other aspects associated with a full service and repairs were carried out and the movement was re-assembled. Running the movement on a test stand for a couple of weeks gave the opportunity to work on the case. I wait until everything is ready for assembly before polishing the weights and the pendulum bob. After polishing these I like to coat them in a gold tinted shellac, which protects from tarnish, finger marks and gives a brighter finish.

                                                                       

Case parts were supplied by John at Old and New Times. John makes replacement components based on original designs. Having chosen the case parts it then required the task of matching the wood colours. I used small squares drawn out on a parts of the case components that would not be seen on assembly to test the colours. No two wood dyes form different manufacturers will ever be the same, so it is a case of mixing and testing in the numbered squares drawn out on the wood. It's a good idea to make notes, and use a precise measurement, such as a large plastic syringe, as you go in order to be able to repeat what you've done in a larger batch when happy with the match. It's fair to say it's pretty difficult to get an exact match, and it's a good idea to get a second and third opinion from friends. Ask them to choose the best match out of the test patches on the parts. If they agree with you it's probably close enough!

So here's how the clock looks now it has been finished. In the first picture you can see the pendulum swing with quite a large amplitude. This was reduced greatly by adjusting the locks of the pallets until the escapement wheel teeth were dropping onto the lock faces of the pallets by only approx 0.35-40mm. It now swings approx 18-19mm either side of centre, which does make it more sensitive when beat setting but is my preference to have a small amplitude. It is keeping great time.