About the service
A pendulum clock almost never dies all at once. First it gains or loses several minutes a day, then the pendulum stops an hour after winding, then the strike falls out of step with the hands, and the case begins to squeak and ring on every turn. The cause is usually dull: old oil has turned to glue, the pivot holes are worn oval, the pivots themselves are grooved, the suspension length has been knocked out of true, and somebody has already been at it with a screwdriver.
I take such a movement in for a full service. It comes out of the case and down to the last wheel, every part is washed and dried, worn bushings and pivots are replaced, bent teeth are straightened and polished, the pallets of the anchor are re-faced and set to the escape wheel. The barrel and the weight chain get their own inspection, because that is where the energy of the clock is stored. Two warnings I repeat to every owner. The mainspring and the driving weights store a great deal of energy, and taking the barrel apart or dropping the weights at the kitchen table is how people lose fingers and eyes, so I talk everybody out of home dismantling. And the old advice to add sewing machine oil is the surest way to ruin a movement: it creeps, it gums up, and within a season it turns the pivots and the plate holes into an abrasive. I oil point by point, with proper clock oils of the right viscosity.
Antique clocks are examined first and costed out on paper. Nothing irreversible happens without the written consent of the owner: original parts, wheels and maker marks stay with the clock. For some movements spare parts have not been made for decades, and then it is more honest to say so at once than to keep the clock on the bench for half a year.
— full strip-down, washing and drying of every part of the movement
— new bushings where the holes have gone oval, pivots polished, teeth straightened
— anchor pallets re-faced, depth of engagement and impulse set
— barrel, chain, pulleys, weights and the ratchet click overhauled
— oiling point by point with proper clock oils, not a drop more
— rate set by the length of the pendulum suspension, to a minute a week
— strike and hammers timed to the hands, gong and bell tuned by ear
— hung on the wall by the level and by the even beat, not by eye
— two weeks of running in, then a second adjustment at no charge
— care: never turn the hands backwards through the strike; service every five to seven years
I take such a movement in for a full service. It comes out of the case and down to the last wheel, every part is washed and dried, worn bushings and pivots are replaced, bent teeth are straightened and polished, the pallets of the anchor are re-faced and set to the escape wheel. The barrel and the weight chain get their own inspection, because that is where the energy of the clock is stored. Two warnings I repeat to every owner. The mainspring and the driving weights store a great deal of energy, and taking the barrel apart or dropping the weights at the kitchen table is how people lose fingers and eyes, so I talk everybody out of home dismantling. And the old advice to add sewing machine oil is the surest way to ruin a movement: it creeps, it gums up, and within a season it turns the pivots and the plate holes into an abrasive. I oil point by point, with proper clock oils of the right viscosity.
Antique clocks are examined first and costed out on paper. Nothing irreversible happens without the written consent of the owner: original parts, wheels and maker marks stay with the clock. For some movements spare parts have not been made for decades, and then it is more honest to say so at once than to keep the clock on the bench for half a year.
— full strip-down, washing and drying of every part of the movement
— new bushings where the holes have gone oval, pivots polished, teeth straightened
— anchor pallets re-faced, depth of engagement and impulse set
— barrel, chain, pulleys, weights and the ratchet click overhauled
— oiling point by point with proper clock oils, not a drop more
— rate set by the length of the pendulum suspension, to a minute a week
— strike and hammers timed to the hands, gong and bell tuned by ear
— hung on the wall by the level and by the even beat, not by eye
— two weeks of running in, then a second adjustment at no charge
— care: never turn the hands backwards through the strike; service every five to seven years
