Making hammer leather replacement pieces

[willofiam]

Here is a short video of how I make the replacement leather for a typical American clock movement hammer head. There are several different ways to go about this depending on the style of hammer head and material originally used on the movement. Hopefully in this thread we can compile all types of hammer head material replacement techniques. Thank you and enjoy. William

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[bernie weishapl]

I have a supply of leather sewing machine belts in different sizes that I use William. Good idea with the leather and punch. Simple but good info for new clockmakers.

[willofiam]

Hey Bernie, thank you, great idea for a supply of leather. Have fun , William

[maitai11]

William,

Excellent instructional video. It reminds me of making an authentic leather fire bucket in my mid-twenties. What was most important to getting that right was to wet the leather, really, to soak it in water, as you indicated. I will have to employ this technique soon enough – in fact, I might just go ahead and do it on my Waterbury No. 72 Hall Clock, as I do not think the leather pad has ever been changed out. It’s squashed down like a flat pancake. Probably cracked, too.

My sister once alluded to the “layers of felt cloth” that were wrapped around the gong to either dampen or liven the sound. It’s amazing what folks will trick themselves into believing without seeing the internal mechanisms of things like clocks. I told her it was leather, and she was rather surprised To be honest, before I saw it myself, I believed her version hook, line, and sinker

Pic attached of that ole’ fire bucket

Note: I attached two pics to show the “butt stitch” seam at the rear of the piece. That was some feat, created basically utilizing an awl, needle, thimble, needlenose pliers, and waxed heavy thread to get it to render properly. The inside of the bucket has no thread or holes – it is, instead, glued along the seam, with the stitching routing through the outer edge, and into the middle thickness of the leather, through the other side, and out the back. As you might expect, the leather was quite thick – about 1/4″ – in order to achieve that particular construct.

Sorry, I know this is off-topic, but I just had to share my excitement about leather!

Best,

Tim

[willofiam]

Hey Tim, nice bucket. Is the hammer on your clock a similar style? If it is different or if your process is different then feel free to document and post it up in this thread. There are many styles of hammers and ways of going about replacing the hammer leather. That way we can provide a wide range of techniques and types of hammers in this thread. Thank you and have a great day, William

[maitai11]

Hi William,

It is a round dot of leather on a hammer, just as the one you showed in your thread. I’ll post if it’s attached in a different way, i.e., not “screwed” into the brass hammerhead. But I can tell you there’s an arm, with a hammerhead, and a piece of leather between the gong and head, as a striking surface.

Thanks for your nice comments about my fire bucket! That was a rite of passage for me at the time. I had never attempted such a difficult task – it was my first project in leather. I’ll never forget it.

Kind regards,

Tim

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