This is a real punt but I know there are plenty of watchmakers and hobbyists on here so I might get lucky ....

... do any of you have any arts and crafts copper clock hands sitting in your spares drawers or boxes that you would be happy to let go?

Style should be similar to the ones in the photo below and the lengths 2 inches (50mm) and 2.5 inches (63mm):

 

Should also add another photo that I found while trying to nail down the designer ... the hands on the clock below might be better still. Whatever any of you may find in copper and of the correct period will be considered... my alternative will be to make a set myself.

Thanks all for looking!

 

ouch... difficult! My suggestion would be to find someone who specializes in parts for late 1800s French clocks, I've seen a few with very similar hands in both size and style but finished in brass or in gold (using a nasty & friggin dangerous plating process called fire gilding that involves dissolving gold in a mercury solution, painting that on and then burning off the mercury). Fire gilt gold gives a softer finish in a colour not unlike that shown in the first photo above. They won't be easy to find but will still likely be far more common than copper.

or find some common American hands in blue steel and get them cleaned and plated in copper.

 

I know it's going to be a tough ask and I'm pretty much resigned to making a set ... but original would be so much better.

They're for this ... before and after a light cleaning:

Still plenty of hidden oil to remove before she gets a coat of wax. The mechanism is soaking in a vat of WD40 but it looks like there will be plenty of parts that are salvageable from it. She will be a stunner in a few more weeks or months ... and she deserves to be brought back. I would love to prove she's an Archibald Knox, but I have my doubts.

 

I have a dozen antique clocks around the place and thought they were pretty nice but solid copper? What a cool thing that is! I'm looking up Archibald Knox right now!

 

I have found a maker of clock hands who has happily agreed to make a set for me, so I'll mark this thread accordingly but I've just packed the case and movement ready to deliver to one of my little elves (a really good, retired, watchmaker who's going to breathe life back into the mechanism) and I thought you all might like to see the case now she's ready to be installed ...

 

I know this is a WTB thread and probably not the place to do this (might give it a pictorial thread when it's all done) but the movement's completed now ...

Here's the "before"


And the "after"