Welcome to the restoration of a customers mid c1800's Longcase.

Work report
The clock had  been in the customers family a number of years and at some point in the 1960's had been stripped of its original finish and patina, in favour of what can only be described as a  beech effect.

In places it had bloomed and started to go a cream colour. (The photo does not quite show this to best effect,  see later photo where we have stripped one side to reveal actual woods splendour)  The customer requested the clock be restored to its original finish,  make case repairs where splitting and damage had occured and the movement to be serviced. 

The case over the years had suffered from shrinkage (most likely caused by central heating)  thus a huge split had developed down the front and back. All the decorative mouldings below the hood were hanging on by a thread.

The base mouldings had also become detached/loose. The base left-hand side the veneer had lifted, the Front base panel was also beginning to detach,  rear panel due to the shrinkage had also split  a third length of the case and had shrunk from the sides.

The hood had  a couple of splits, the door had warped,  it would also  appear  the locating pin which locked the door in place had been lost. The door lock was not original and was hanging off and missing its key. I think before much longer the poor thing would have fallen apart.

The dial was in good condition considering its age with only one large scratch and a little wear around the winding holes. These were painted in with near match.

The movement was quite dusty and had not been oiled, it was last serviced Feb 1970,  found a sticker inside, but I don't believe it had been serviced since, at least we got it  before too much longer.

Movement  stripped down, cleaned pivot holes with peg wood to remove  gunk and checked for wear although very mucky it  showed there was no noticeable wear,  which meant no bushing required.
Back-plate, face-plates cleaned,  all Pivot holes cleaned, and polished  (See Photos). Going train and strike train cleaned polished and checked for wear and alignment, all ok. The palette entrance and exit faces were a different matter,  heavily scored and very mucky, this would require refinishing to return to high polished faces (See Photos). The escape wheel was also in good reasonable condition, with slight burring to tips also mucky, basically the whole thing needed a good service. Once this was done it ran a lot smoother and power transfer more positive. 

A  3-4 year return to service for inspection and oiling will keep it in good condition rather than 40- 50 year intervals, where damage may occur resulting in expensive work. Re-assembled and oiled. 

Back to the case, all loose mouldings were removed, well, most removed themselves. At some point  in the past  "uncle bodger " and his handy carpet tacks!!! had hammered a few in to try and hold them in place. All the hardened glue was  removed from both surfaces then a lot of sanding to get a nice clean face to provide a key for re-bonding.   Stripped the beech finish from the mouldings to reveal the natural wood ready for re-finishing.

With the mouldings and door removed this revealed the nasty front split which had developed. The split in-fact, were the sections coming apart but what made it worse was some shrinkage. Case Clamps were used to see how far  the gap could be pulled up.  Fortunatly the gap could be reduced, this left a small groove which was filled with a mixture of fine sandings powder from the case and glue to fill the groove. I decided to also fit bracing plates fitted inside to stop this happening in the future.

The bottom front base panel was removed, it was loose and need refixing. Upon removal it was found to have been fitted the wrong way round the bevelled edges should be outside. Case clamps were strapped onto the rear to pull the bottom of the case together, with wooden blocks glued in place to the corners to hold the case together.

The split at the rear now pulled up and was filled in the same manner. A wooden brace on the rear   was screwed and glued in place, this was handy as it would also carry the safety chain (Attaches case to the wall) . With all the bracing and new support, it should be the end of the matter. It is worth noting with all clocks, try and site away from heat sources as this can cause case and movement issues.


The hood was stripped of its finish and the two splits were pulled in as best possible, they would not close fully so new wood was inserted and finished until flush, glued and clamped ready for polishing. The door glass and Bezel were removed. The bezel was wood covered with plaster painted gold, not brass and was very mucky, cleaned and re-painted. The hood door used to have a locating Pin and chain which was missing, a new one was turned on the lathe and fitted.


The shelf on which the movement sits has two side ends, someone in the past had wacked a couple of 4" inch nails through the shelf plate incorrectly aligning them, so when the hood is in place and the movement fitted there is a gap on the left side of about 7mm which results in the dial being off-set by this much. It was also noted that the side ends were not level with each other.


Contacted the customer and confirmed that the clock had never run In-beat. Using a spirt level it was found to be about 3mm out on the left-hand side. A new piece of wood was fitted and the mount is now level. The Nails were replaced for proper mountings. Movement fitted to test and ran in beat and was correctly aligned.

The cabinet was stripped of its unnatural finish, sections were tackled individually. This is best practice  to ensure the stripper does not dry out, if you tried to do the whole case in one go it would be a nightmare to control. Once all the finish was removed lots of sanding and preping of the surfaces followed, finally re-assembley of mouldings etc and cleaned with Meths before finishing with Danish Oil, about 3 light coats were applied with fine sanding between.

The Whole clock was re-assebled for its 2 week work/time test, during this time we test the work we carried out. Function tests are performed on the strike side, this ensure correct hours are struck in sequence. There seemed to be a fault at 12, it was getting hung up an striking once, fine adjustment made to hour snail and all was well again.

The date change was not working this was due to customer transportation (always transport clocks with weights and pendulum removed) the pin which locates into the gear had become bent, straightened, all ok now.

Now Time testing commenced, adjusting once every 24 hours, we test against our radio controlled timesource and another longcase. You would be amazed at the accuracy these movements can achieve considering their age etc.

After one week happy with the function, that's it restored, and happy to provide timekeeping well into the next century.