Sore fingers

I’ve got really sore fingers from rubbing down.  Not paint this time but brass.  People who bother to polish the mushroom vents on their boat will know the feeling. For a change though, this brass has nothing to do with boats. It’s more to do with something to keep me occupied while I can’t go boating. It’s my new clock.  Well, when I say new I mean 40 or 50 years old.  This clock will never live on the boat.  Apart from being too big, it is a pendulum clock.  Imagine that trying to work while the boat rocks in the wind!

 

There are lots of brass sub assemblies like this

all tarnished with age and the object is to take it all to bits and using wet and dry paper and metal polish get them back to a shiny state.  I have of course taken photos from every angle, otherwise I’ll never get it back together again. Just like me getting the clock in the first place, this is all entirely Rick’s fault.  He has a similar clock we he has restored to spectacular condition, I suspect better than new.   I will never achieve that standard, having neither the skill nor the perfectionist tendency, but I won’t be able to look him in the eye if I don’t at least give it a good clean.  Incidentally since his house is full of interesting old clocks, I have been considering referring to Rick in future as The Time Lord. 

Taking a clock to bits is a bit scary, but I suspect I might get it reassembled and working as the bits are nice and big and simple.  By Christmas would be nice.