John Birge & Co. 1848 Column & Cornice Clock - Movement Restoration

This post deals with the cleaning, repairs, and restoration work on the movement from my John Birge & Co. 1848 Column & Cornice Clock.



I think it's fair to say that this movement was a wreck! It was full of botched repairs, solder, and damaged components, I spent at least 8 hours cleaning, repairing, and adjusting this movement over the past 2 days. The movement had enough problems that I thought I might simply swap the whole movement with a spare Birge & Fuller movement that I have, but unfortunately the spare movement I have has the Birge & Fuller stamp on the front plate, and this movement that's original to the John Birge & Co has no name on the plates.

The good thing about having the spare movement, as well as my other original Birge & Fuller column clock (in my collection) is that I could refer to both of them during my repairs.

For now, here are a few "before" photos, and some details related to the problems in need of attention:



The bulk of the issues can be seen in the following photo:
- poor quality and mangled "helper springs" attached to the levers (which are entirely unnecessary in this particular movement)
- crutch wire broken and soldered in 3 places
- all levers and wires horribly bent, kinked, and mangled, some of which have even been clipped short
- entirely replaced and poorly functioning fan assembly
- globs of solder
- the "spade" end of the count hook is broken
- missing pins
- bent pivots
- punch marks around pivot holes
- mangled winding squares
- missing strike advance lever
- incorrectly sized cords
- lots of dirt and some rust



This shows the worst pieces (the two upper wheels had bent pivots):



All the wires were mangled.



Also not clearly visible was the "repair" to the fan's bushing, which is inset into a deep hole, and held in place purely with solder:







Initially I thought I could reuse the existing fan arbour and lantern pinion assembly, but it was a very poor fit. Here I had simply removed all the solder, and knocked the pieces apart.



As I was heating and removing the solder (simply using a small torch and a brass wire brush) I made the grizzly discovery of 3 holes along the rear top plate (near the fan pivot hole).





The smaller holes were enlarged slightly with a cutting broach (mostly to remove all the excess solder), and brass rivets were installed. For permanently plugged holes, I simply cut a small countersink on both sides, and gently hammer a piece of brass on both sides to essentially form an "I" shaped plug. These are then filed and polished flat. The large hole was also slightly enlarged, but I left some of the oval shape. The brass rivet material (any brass scrap) was heat-treated first so that it would better fit and fill-in this slightly ovate hole. The hammering and peening actions re-harden the brass. Be sure to work from both sides equally.



Filing:



Not the best photo, but you get the idea. It's not going to be 100% perfect, but it looks a lot better than the extra holes.





This shows the repair after the new pivot hole and fan were fitted. The location for the hole was marked using a caliper to measure the centre based on the front plate.



The end of the count hook was repaired by filing a fresh surface on the interior side of the remaining stump, and silver soldering a small piece of steel mainspring material onto it. Once it's cooled, the excess steel is filed away to an acceptable shape, and polished smooth.



The warning lever had been clipped short, so using the dimensions from my two existing movements as a guide, I made a half-lap joint and silver-soldered a new length of wire to it.



The excess borax flux and solder can easily be filed away, and a bit of sandpaper and steel wool help to blend in the repair.



These photos show all the repaired levers:







When I had removed all the soldered pieces from the verge, I found only the top crutch with about 1/8" stub of the brass crutch wire left. This was essentially useless, so the nub was removed with a punch, and a new brass crutch wire was installed. The top of the new wire was attached with a friction fit alone. To do this, I hit the wire with a small hammer about 1/8" down from the tip. Just enough to BARELY oval the wire. The wire was then pushed through the hole in the crutch, and held from below in a small vise. The top of the wire (inside the crutch) was then hammered down firmly (like a rivet). Since this is brass wire from a horology supply house, it's fairly stiff. To form the bottom loop, I was very careful to heat-soften the wire at each bend to avoid having it break. The bottom loop is made into a figure 4, and the excess stem was cut flush using a jeweler's saw (which is much easier than trying to clip it with pliers or nippers.



The new fan was a fairly long job on its own. I was able to use a prefabricated pivot and lantern pinion assembly, which I then cut to size. A pivot was formed on the end, and a new pivot hole was drilled into the back plate (in the original location). Once that was done, and the pivot hole was broached and both wheels spun freely (this lantern assembly turned out to be a perfect fit on my initial testing), I then cut a new fan blank (again referring to the size on the original spare movement). The centre divot was formed with a piece of 1/8" steel wire pressed in place with a block of soft wood on the back side, and hardwood on the front.

At this point, I noticed that the fan would not have enough clearance. This is because my lantern pinion assembly sat at a different depth than the original. To get around this small problem, a rectangular notch was filed into the fan to contour the pinion cage. Once the fit was good, a small notch was filed into the arbour, and holes were drilled into the fan for the tension wire.

The last step was to attach the warning pin. A small flat was filed onto the arbour, and centre punched for the hole. The rest was simply drilling the hole, and fitting a friction-fit piece of steel wire, bending it to the correct shape, and trimming it.



The lever with the J hook had 2 additional holes in the stem. I have no idea why they were there, and one even had the remnant of a piece of steel wire in it. The holes are either a later (botch) repair, or an original factory error. In either case, the two levers are in the correct locations (again, checking with my 2 other movements), so I decided to just plug these. The easiest method is to either use taper pins, or suitably sized soft steel wire. The same peening method used earlier was employed.





So after all that work, I was finally happy with everything, the levers were all adjusted (even the hammer tail was at the wrong angle), and everything is back together and functional again.

The movement was finally cleaned and reassembled this afternoon. It did not clean-up nearly as well as I had hoped, so it was given a soft polish all over with ultra fine steel wool.

Heirloom Violin Restoration

This is not strictly clock related, but the restoration deals with all the same issues.



As you can see, the violin went through quite the transformation. Here's another look at some of the "before" photos:



This violin is a friend's family heirloom. Apparently there were a few people in the family who wanted it, but it went to my friend. I don't remember if it was his grandfather's or his great-grandfather's, but in either case, it was in very bad shape, and he wanted to have it repaired so that my other friend (his wife) can play it.

Just from looking at the violin, it's very apparent that it was well loved, and saw a LOT of use. There are actual divots in the ebony fingerboard from playing the instrument. At some point, the nut (the small piece of wood at the top of the fingerboard) was lost, and the strings were simply held in place (poorly) directly on the end of the fingerboard (causing about 7-8 different marks in the wood). At some point the bottom saddle (the black strip along the bottom which spreads out the force from the tailpiece's gut line) was lost, and the instrument was played anyways (which caused two deep wear marks into the cedar top from the stress of the tailpiece gut). The current saddle is ebony, and obviously hand carved by an amateur. This adds charm, so I simply reglued it (it had come loose).

The existing bridge also looks like a later replacement, and the top of it (along with the 4 string grooves) are very poorly cut. The angle of the top of the bridge is also wrong (it should have a bit of a slope). It also doesn't make good contact with the top of the violin (it would need tweaking). The tailpiece also happens to be broken (the upper right corner hole is torn out) and I suspect the tailpiece isn't original either. Two of the pegs might be original, but one is a later replacement, and the fourth one is missing. We may opt to get a whole new set.







The entire neck was split (weakened glue joints) on the top and bottom, and there were one or two other places along the top that were separated.



Lots of scratches and abrasions on the back.



I didn't know exactly how far my friend wanted me to go with this violin, but I had told him I'd do my best, while also trying to do as little as possible to change the antique qualities/patina/look of the violin.

The top, however, was pretty far gone. My friend said that he doesn't think it ever had a chin rest, and I believe him. If you look at the second photo above, the chin rest portion of the violin top is down to bare wood, and it has darkened from oils/grime. What was left of the finish on the top was just a few sections near the edges.

To clean the old finish on the top, all I did was lightly rub the surface with a clean cloth dipped in alcohol. The fingerboard was removed before cleaning the top (it was already loose). The original finish was shellac, and the alcohol melted and redistributed the shellac. A lot of the shellac that was there, however, had turned black from oils, and grime, so about 80% of it was removed. While rubbing off the shellac, I was also trying to blend the finish, and keep the darkened edges intact. I could have taken it down almost to bare wood, but then the surface would not have matched the sides or the back, and I did not want to strip the original finish and patina off the rest of the violin. The sides and back were relatively okay.

The rest of the violin was cleaned with a damp cloth and thoroughly washed. You can see from the photos of the scroll that a lot of what was there was just dirt.

All the loose joints were glued with hot hide glue, and clamped with instrument maker's clamps (or shop-made equivalents). Once the violin was clean, I went over it to remove any excess blobs of glue, or other imperfections. I did some small touch-ups, and then I applied 1 or 2 thin coats of fresh shellac over the violin, avoiding the neck area, and applying additional shellac to the mostly-bare front. This thin new coat helps to conceal the scratches, as well as bring back a lot of the shine to the instrument (especially along the sides, and in the details of the scroll). The shellac (once dried overnight) was then hand polished with ultra fine steel wool and wax, and buffed with a cotton cloth.

The final little bits to repair were to reattach the fingerboard, and to fabricate and glue a new nut. The violin is now done, and all it needs is to replace the missing bits, and to set it up. Luckily the violin still has the original sound post, since these can be hard to fit precisely (without being able to remove the top). I don't know how to set up the sound post precisely, but hopefully we can find someone in town who can do this for us (as I have my own violin project that will need the same treatment). Luckily we do have a fairly good music shop.



I am very happy with the final results. The violin still looks old, still has a lot of its original character, and almost all of its surface patina. The surfaces are far from perfect, but with a fresh finish, it is now safe for handling and playing.





It's hard to believe that this beautiful reddish dye was hiding under all that dirt and grime.





I don't know exactly how old this violin is, if it sounds good, or if it's at all valuable. It doesn't have any label or markings of any kind on the interior. There are at least one or two small breaks (near the left F hole) and along one side which may or may not minimally affect the sound, but I'm very excited to hear it once it's ready. I'll see if I can find any more info on it for anyone who might be interested. In any case, all the restorations I did to the violin are completely reversible (hide glue/shellac).

Updates on the "Mystery" Wooden Works Clock Case

This is a follow-up post which serves to present additional research done over the past year or so on the orphaned "mystery" wooden works clock case I purchased a while back. The clock in question, as well as some initial research can be seen in this post:

http://jcclocks.blogspot.ca/2014/12/a-rare-find.html

I plan to restore this old clock case, but without a matching example to copy, it becomes difficult guesswork. The following 10 clocks bear some similarities to the orphaned case, and are worth discussing for various reasons.

This first clock is a beautiful piece by Chauncey Jerome & Co., marked Richmond VA. The overall style is much fancier than my mystery case, but the door has 3 divisions (which is generally rare/unusual). The door lock is not a match.



This second clock is a very interesting and unusual clock by Case, Gilbert & Co., Winchester CT. It has a very seldom used top splat pattern, which may or may not be original to this clock, and it features a plain flat front (no columns). The similarities seem to end there, however. This clock is much taller than mine, it doesn't have a 3 piece door, and there are additional lips and square mouldings to the case. As with the previous clock, the use of a door lock is inconsistent.



Here is another oddball. This one by Charles Stratton, and features flat fronts with bird's eye maple veneer. The size seems about right, but the interior dividers (which hold the movement in place) don't span the full height. The top is also missing, which doesn't help much with my clock. It's unclear if the door is held shut by a latch or a lock.



Rob M just posted this unusual Eli Terry Jr. & Co. clock the other day, and it caught my eye. It has a very different top, and no 3pc divided door, but it does have a plain flat front, and it uses a similar door catch.



This one is absolutely beautiful, but the only similarity is the 3pc door. Marshall & Adams, Seneca Falls, NY.



Here is another oddball, and again, only very vaguely related to the mystery clock. This is a rather rare Daniel Pratt clock. It has his often-used triangular columns, but a 2 door design with mahogany in the centre. The overall effect from a distance is similar, but the overall construction and details are very different. Sadly the top is an incorrect restoration, but it's still an interesting piece. I believe this is an 8 day clock, but I'm not 100% sure.



Here we find another 3pc divided door on a Thomas Moses, Auburn NY clock. This clock is unusual for its flat stenciled columns as well as for the divided door. I am generally not a big fan of the plain hump splats, but this one is correct/original.



Here we have a very sad looking clock that has seen better days. It has been very poorly refinished, and the top has been badly restored with a ridiculous looking splat and finial combo. It is unclear if all the front veneers have been ripped off. It is by J.J. Beals, NY. (Boardman & Wells), and it has a plain flat front.



Another beautiful example with a 3pc door. Williams Orton & Preston & Co. Farmington.



Lastly, another ornate clock with a rare 3pc door. Also by Williams Orton & Preston & Co. Farmington.



If you have any similar clocks, either with flat undecorated fronts (no columns), or with 3pc divided doors, even better if the centre panel is mahogany, please let me know.

Blog Topics

I've been going through the view counts on the blog, and I've noticed a few interesting things. The most viewed posts seem to be either "new acquisition" posts, or very basic tutorials (repairing hands, wax-filling, etc). I don't really have a huge quantity of viewers on this blog yet, but I'd like to leave this post open if anyone had any special requests, or topic ideas.

As is, I plan to continue with my current trends (posting current projects as I work on them), but I do have a number of "how to" posts coming in the future.

Upcoming projects:

- Posting some of the repairs done on a rare month-going longcase clock movement with (missing) passing strike.
This will include the making of small custom parts using minimal tools.
- Finished photos of the third comtoise clock (Rossignol à Caylux).
- Dial silvering tutorial (at some point).
- Update post on the rare Seth Thomas.
- John Birge column clock restoration.
- Waterbury rosewood beehive clock restoration.
- Several ogee clock restorations.
- Tips on using a jeweler's saw.
- Clock collection video tour(s).

And lots more, including client repairs, and new acquisitions.

I also have the option to revisit past restorations I've done, including repairs to wooden works clock movements, and working on several clocks that were especially far gone.