Clock End Bars

Worked on the end bars today,

  The end bars are horizontal bars on the end of the clock.  This picture shows the location on the original clock.



  While it may not be clear from this photo, they are short bars with a rectangular mortise.  The only challenging aspect with the mortise is that the mortise about 3/4" high by 3/8" and arranged so that the 3/4" part of the mortise sits along the 1" part of the bar.  In other words, if I punched or cut the mortise, there would only be about 1/8" inch of metal left.  However, this method yields a mortise with more than enough metal left.

  I start with 4 16" bars.  I've hammered down the corners to make them easier to forge to shape later.  Not worried about having them perfectly circular.



  I then start by chiseling a slit on both ends of the bar and from both sides.  The slit is 3/4" long, 1/2" from the end and centered in the bar.



  This is after the first chiseling



  After the chisel cut all the way through, I follow up with a round drift to open the hole up.



Then, I hammer on the end some to make the mortise more oblong in shape.



  Notice that it is not circular anymore.  I then heat the metal and put it on the bolster plate which is shown below.  This has a hole the size of the mortise.  I use the drift, (with a PD for corner Post Drift) to hammer through the hole to make it the right size.  The bolster plate is on the back size of the piece to keep it from deforming as I hammer the drift through.



Finally, this a picture of the complete mortise.  The one of the left is a new one, the one on the right is from a few months back.  The picture doesn't show it too well but the new ones are much better shaped.



  The little bit of deformity is fine and will actually be useful as it will provide some extra gripping power when I attach the frame.  The one on the right was just too poorly formed to use.

  Finally, here is another example of the "bad" end bars I made a few months back.