Daniel Pratt Jr. Shelf Clock ca.1838

This is a clock that I purchased very cheaply on eBay back in summer of 2009. Since moving to my new house back in early 2010, this has been one of MANY clocks that has just been sitting patiently, waiting to get the royal treatment.

I chose to work on this clock over others because the fragile (broken) door was not with the case (I had it sitting elsewhere), and I've been carefully moving it around in the basement for 3 years, and I thought I could get the clock restored fairly quickly.



The clock was inexpensive due to its horrible condition, however, it had a lot of potential: it had the original dial, pendulum, key, and movement; and most of the case elements were still there.



The main issues with the case involved a large break to the door, a missing splat, and several veneer repairs.



















Part of the reason I liked this clock was for the dial, which has colour-painted floral motifs (rather than simple gold corners), and unusual triangular columns. I have not seen too many wooden works clocks with triangular columns, since the more popular designs included turned half-columns with black and gold stencilled decorations, and a matching top splat.

Brewster & Ingrahams Beehive Clock

Here is a gift from a wonderful internet friend of mine.



This is a beautiful 8 day brass-spring beehive clock made by Brewster & Ingrahams. The clock retains the original finish, and everything else on it apart from the tablet is original.

Sadly, the strike spring has shattered (possibly during transport), and these are irreplaceable.

I was told that this clock is rather rare because B&I only made 8 day brass-spring clocks for about 4 years (1837-1843).





I am excited to get this clock cleaned and running, but I will need to find out what the equivalent steel spring replacement should be, and order one, before I do that. In the meantime the clock sits just to my right in the computer room. I have found a Terry key that fits the original door "lock" (really just a latch) perfectly, and added a tassel to it.

W. Allan Longcase Clock - Finished Photos (Reveal) + Video

After 10 months of work, the clock was finally finished, and ticking happily. What a beautiful clock. I am extremely pleased with the finished results, and I think it turned out even better than I would have thought (considering the extent of the damage).



BEFORE:





Top right corner:



Top left corner:



Dial before repairs:



Now:









Here is a video showing the clock on the test stand striking 9 o'clock. Warning: the bell striking is very loud in the recording.



And finally, here you can see the clock in its home at my friend's parents' place in their dining room.



I sincerely hope that you all enjoyed this extensive restoration. I surely did not charge enough, but it was still a fun and challenging project to work on. It helped that the owners are some of the most wonderful people you could ever hope to meet.

For reference, the clock is around 86-87" to the top of the swan neck mouldings. I believe he may also want to order some finials for the clock at a later date.

Finishing-up The W. Allan Longcase

Alright, I've been dragging my feet when it comes to this particular blog, because I don't currently have much feedback on it. The beautiful Scottish longcase clock that I had been working on since February (2013) is finally finished, and set-up in the clients' home. I managed to have everything done and ready for them just before Christmas (about a week before).

In the last post, I discussed the repairs to the feet, and the beginnings of the complex repairs to the corner mouldings of the swan neck crest.

One of the two blocks that I had glued into place was too short, and I had to remove it, and re-install a larger piece of mahogany.

I also really didn't like how this entire corner had turned out:



So I removed all the varnish, re-puttied it, and block sanded it completely smooth. New stain, and toned lacquers were added instead of the hand-brushed varnishes, which gave a far superior finish. But before I get to that, I first made the columns.

I wasn't really sure if my client wanted to spend extra money to cover the costs of the column tops/bottoms, but I decided to go ahead and order them regardless, since the clock hood simply couldn't go without the columns.

Column tops and bottoms for this style of "plain" post columns (based on photos and research) use the same parts for the top and bottom pieces. The originals on this clock were 1" square, but the closest available equivalents were 1 1/8" square with a 3/4" column.

I ordered these through Timesavers, and I was really impressed with the quality. They aren't cheap, but they are exceedingly well made.







Rather than hand-turn plain blank columns, I simply used 3/4" hardwood dowels. I picked one that was as clear and straight as possible, and stained it a very deep mahogany brown. Additional toned varnish was added to get a near-perfect colour match. In this photo, they only have the stain applied.



The brass column tops and bases came without mounting holes, so I needed to drill a pait of very small holes into them to accept some tiny steel finishing nails (smaller than 1/16").

Here you can see the re-sanded cornice, and the finished (installed) columns.









Before I glued the swan neck moulding in place, I needed to attach a reinforcing brace behind the break, patch the chipped chunks on either side of the break, and rough carve the corner patches.



The original crest used 3 small square glue blocks, but I decided to use 5 triangular ones. These were patinated (with a vinegar and iron solution) before installation, then they were stained/painted to match.





After the swan neck crest assembly was glued back to the hood with hide glue, and plenty of clamps (and left to dry overnight), the mahogany patches were hand carved, sanded, and cracks/small gaps puttied.

Note the large patched section of the cornice above the column, which is now nearly invisible.







Stain, varnish, and coloured lacquer were used to blend-in the repairs.









The next part (no photos) was to re-fit the hood door. The hood was reglued solidly as close to "new" as you could expect, however, the hood door had slowly expanded (slightly) in the joints, meaning that it no longer fit into the original opening.

Since the door had the original puttied glass in place, I couldn't take it apart to re-clamp it, and I couldn't throw it on the table saw either, because the vibrations could potentially shatter the glass.

To trim down the door, I had to do it carefully by hand using a hand plane, and a bit of sand paper. In the process, I discovered that the door appears to be made from Cherry, which I thought was incredibly unusual.

With the door carefully re-installed, and waxed on all sides to prevent rubbing at the top and bottom, I turned my attention to the movement.

As you may recall, most of the damaged components were already repaired, and I just had to clean the movement. You can see how dirty and dusty it was, as well as some of my cleaning routine, which involves keeping the individual levers and gears separate and labelled for easier reassembly.



A lot of clockmakers chose to put different artistic twists on common pieces such as this beautifully detailed lifting piece (which raises the hammer for striking the bell):



As well as these two gracefully curved pieces (the rack hook and rack):



The movement has a few previous repairs, and I found this one on the centre wheel. It's a very ugly repair (for a broken leaf pinion) but it's very solid, so I left it as-is. I could have improved the repair but it wasn't worth spending one or two hours on it for a minimal aesthetic improvement.



Another simple repair that I needed to do was to replace the broken pin on the calendar wheel. This pin advances the calendar hand on the dial by one tooth every 24 hours to indicate the date.



Here are two photos of the finished/cleaned movement on the original (repaired) seatboard. You may note two (less than perfect) existing repairs to the rack tail (solder) and the rebuilt gathering pallet. You may also see that the bell stand now has 2 nuts on it. This is because the threads on the bell stand are completely worn down at the base.





Lastly, here you can see the back of the finished hood repairs. All the glue blocks and patched sections have been antiqued to match the back and top of the case.



The next (and final) post about the Allan longcase clock will show the photos of the finished clock.

Longcase Update

Slow progress is still progress. Since the last time I posted, I've repaired the feet and stained them (they still need shellac), and made a few additional repairs to the hood, including the right hand cove moulding, and patching the large chipped hole. I also made and fitted the two rear slats (they aren't glued in place yet).

Here you can see a simple card stock template that I made for the pattern of the ogee feet. I flattened-out the broken rear feet sections with the belt sander, and prepped some new blanks, which were cut to the correct shape before being attached (you can see both blanks ready for installation).



Right foot:



Left foot (this one may need a bit more stain):



Here are the patch pieces glued onto both ends of the swan neck moulding.





Left side "mini cove" patch.



Here you can see the mostly finished right side. It doesn't look too fantastic in this photo because it's just inches away from a strong light, and it also needs several coats of shellac.



More soon (ish).