John Stevens’ skeleton clock

With the help of John Parslow’s approach, (thank you John), and under the skilful and selective eye of my wife I’ve combined Tasmanian oak beading, shellac lacquer (French polish), and a layer of dark blue cloth which has extra padded thickness. The shellac has produced a brassy colour which we believe compliments the brass of the clock.

A trip to the glazier’s shop will be the next step in making a glass case to protect the clock. I plan to glue the glass panels together with clear silicone, aiming to produce a near invisible joint. If the refractive index of the silicone was similar to that of the glass, I could imagine that the joint would be hard to detect.

Any thoughts?

Once the case is complete, I can then strip the clock down to its individual parts ready for a final clean-up, another polish, and then apply my version of lacquer to the brass. It was interesting to discover that the British Museum don't apply lacquer to their exhibits, but I'd rather not have to go through the cleaning and polishing bit again.

One last thought. From my super-gluing experiments, I wound enough length of balance spring to make a couple more springs if needed. Judging from the quality of the one presently controlling the clock's accuracy, a better one would be more satisfying.

Regards,

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 07/07/2011 04:37:44

To John (McNamara) and Phil (blister)

How remarkable, and what a small world. As the crow flies, the two villages you have each mentioned are only 3.5 miles apart. Could it be that you knew each other as you grew up?

On my 2004 disc there is an address of C I Parslow

Edited By Sam Stones on 08/07/2011 23:25:33

Edited By Pat on 09/07/2011 02:22:33

Edited By Sam Stones on 13/07/2011 00:19:34