The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Clock project
shipto:
Now it may not look like it at the moment but the clock pictured is probably the luckiest clock in the world.
My grandad was making his way through Belgium towards Dunkirk and came upon this clock in the ruins of a bombed building. He said all that was left of this building was the fireplace and perched on the mantlepiece was this clock still ticking and keeping good time. Even though there was a policy against looting he could not bare to leave this for the germans who where hot on the heels of the retreating troops.
When my grandad died at the ripe old age of 89 my mother got posession of the clock which had ceased to working somewhere in that time. My mom died two weeks ago and today my sisters and I where clearing stuff out of her house and taking stuff down the tip. My sister where bickering the whole day and the younger one, out of temper was throwing stuff without checking. Anyway while on my final trip of the day to the tip I only wood and metal but decided to clear a few bits out of the car and walked up to the landfill skip and placed to one side was grandads clock. my sister must have chucked it and one of the council blokes must have spotted it and placed it to one side. I could not believe it, it had sustained some damage but there it was. I had forgotten all about it until then.
So there it is I have myself a project that I dont even know if I am capable of. Restoring this clock.
This will be a long drawn out project for me as I have never worked with clockworks so may be asking for lots of advice.
raynerd:
Before you do anything on it, I`d drop by the NAWCC forum and see if someone can tell you more about it. Being so old with such a great story to its name, I`d try and get more info on it. Are there any name stamps/markings anywhere?
Chris
shipto:
there are marking but they are not English they are "BREVETE SGDG" marked twice so I think this may be important, "DOVEMENT" but that is around a key so it may just be what the key is for. "PEWEIL" same again, "SONIENIE" and again. There is other markings but they are hard to make out until i clean it.
what is NAWCC?
never mind got them.
DMIOM:
A good catch!
The French use Brevete for Patent(ed). SGDG is a bit like "Pat. pending" (it actually stands for Sans Guarantie Du Gouvernement).
and in case it helps:
Sonienie - not sure, but Sonner is to ring, as in ring a bell - so that may be the winder for the chime
Dovement - again, not sure. Doucement is gently/softly, so may be its loudness?
Peweil -no idea!
Dave
raynerd:
National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors which have an excellent forum with lots of very very knowledgeable people worldwide! I`m craynerd on nearly every forum I ever visit but I joined NAWCC nearly 10 years ago when I randomly picked horology101, so say hello if you see me although I`m not too active, I just tend to lurk and post my clock build log.
Good luck and watch your eye when you pop the mainspring open :dremel: :clap:
EDIT: Dave posted while I was so looks like you have some good info there!
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