I use a cocktail stick with a very fine sharpened tip. I apply the tritium mixture in two layers, the first layer is very fine, I make sure I get into the edges and follow the lines of the plots, by the time I have got around the dial the thin layer is cured enough to start again at the first plot. This time I use a bigger blob of tritium on the end of the cocktail stick and lightly touch the plot until I can see that it is just touching the thin layer, then I just run it over the plot. The top coat of trit adheres to the thin bottom coat and does not want to spill over. If your mixture is too wet it may spill over but you can leave it for later and go back to tidy it up with the tip of a cocktail stick to get your edges neat. The Bergeon stuff I use to mix with the tritium can be removed carefully while it is tacky without marking the dial so it is quite forgiving. I go a tad darker with the colour because when it is fully cured it is a tad lighter. It does help if you have total peace and quite, Mrs E and my 3 year old boy were in bed while I did this so I think that helped, the dawn corus and the sound of of a ticking clock were my only company,I really enjoyed myself, it was quite relaxing.
I use tritium from scrap dials and try to keep dark and light colours separate so I can mix them together to get the colour I want. I am not sure how healthy the trit powder is so to be cautious I treat it like poison.
I do not use the thinners either in the tritium mixture only the lacquer as I think the thinners would stain the dial if it was to come into contact with it. So if the mixture gets too tacky and starts to leave a peak I add a bit more lacquer. Like I said I am no expert, I am sure other people will do things differently.
thanks MIck

 

Glad you approve, It did cross my mind more than once that I might get a virtual clip around the ears on here if I made a complete mess of it.
Thanks Mick

 

Very nice work Mr. E
Really like how it looks with the new old tritium.

Marked for future reference - obasac

 

Thank you for the kind comment Steve. Working on another mans watch would have my nerves in tatters though.
Thanks Mick

 

michael
when you say cocktail stick,
do you mean plastic dagger type or
wood toothpick?

 

I use the wooden ones.

 

So are you crushing up old tritium lume and using new binder with it? If so I hope you are taking some precautions with the tritium powder...making sure you don't ingest or inhale any and keeping the area clean and keeping the powder in a controlled area...

Its easy to inhale fine dust when you work under magnification close up to the work, so that would be my primary concern.

Its not nearly as dangerous as radium lume, but still some thing I am cautious with when I remove it in order to rely me hands etc.

Cheers, Al

 

Hi Al.
I treat the powder like it is poison however in the past when I was young I have tinkered with old pocket watches and have not taken care with the radium on the dials as I had no idea it was dangerous . No super powers have manifested in me as yet either so fingers crossed.
But seriously I do take care now with this stuff, in fact I am very paranoid about it.
all the best Mick

 

There you go. Your superpower is reluming dials, which is appropriate. I can't imagine doing anything like that with such a great result.