No.1 has blued steel hands. You cannot just use any steel. Functionally the hands need to be tempered to spring. This allows for repeated assembly & disassembly (during servicing). Also, a spring retains its shape better. Aesthetically, they need to be heat blued. Silver steel serves this purpose very well. Unfortunately, I have only been able to get it in rod form. So, I must make flat bars out of the rods.
Here are two lengths of rod, one for the hour hand, one for the minute hand.
These need to be split down the middle.
The two halves...
The halves need to be filed down into bars with parallel surfaces
In watch work, a good finish is essential at each stage of work. Here are the bars ready to be worked upon.
Next time I will write about making the rough hour hand.
Aditya
