Repairing Antique Clocks

All my life I have been fascinated by clocks, of all types, but especially antique long case and bracket clocks.  Now that I have retired I decided to have a go at repairing at least one of those I already owned.  I thought I know about engineering so repairing clocks should be quite straight forward, boy was I in for a shock!

My first attempts seemed to make matters worse.  A clock that worked after a fashion stopped altogether after my tender loving care.  So I thought oh well my bad luck I'll have a go at another one - the result - the same it didn't work at all now!  At this point I thought I must be doing something wrong, I think I need some expert help!

By this time I was a subscriber to Clocks Magazine and espied an advert for a four day full time course on clock repairing, Quality Time Courses.  Just the job I thought I'll have a go at that.  So I signed on the dotted line and sat back impatiently awaiting the arrival of the first day.

I arrived on site with a set of what I thought were suitable tools and met with the tutor, David Churchill.  It soon became clear that I had to forget all about engineering and settle down to learning clock repairing from the beginning.

I've now been to three of David's courses over the past 2 years and will be going to another in September 2005.  I have certainly learned a lot.  I've successfully repaired two long case clocks and almost finished a German bracket clock.  I also have a Napoleon's Hat clock in bits and pieces and hope to complete this in September.

The links at the sidebar will take you to David's own web site and another will take you to Clocks Magazine, The British Horological Institute (BHI) and a source of literature devoted to clock repairing.