The NAWCC Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Mr. Rory McEvoy has been named Executive Director of the NAWCC. Rory is an internationally renowned horological scholar and comes to the NAWCC with strong credentials that solidly align with our education, fundraising, and membership growth objectives. He has a postgraduate degree in the conservation and restoration of antique clocks from West Dean College, and throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to handle some of the world’s most important horological artifacts, including longitude timekeepers by Harrison, Kendall, and Mudge.
Rory formerly worked as Curator of Horology at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, where his role included day-to-day management of research and digitization projects, writing, public speaking, conservation, convening conferences, exhibition work, and development of acquisition/disposal and collection care policies. In addition, he has worked as a horological specialist at Bonhams in London, where he cataloged and handled many rare timepieces and built important relationships with collectors, buyers, and sellers. Most recently, Rory has used his talents to share his love of horology at the university level by teaching horological theory, history, and the practical repair and making of clocks and watches at Birmingham City University.
Rory is a British citizen and currently resides in the UK. Pre-COVID-19, Rory and his wife, Kaai, visited HQ in Columbia, Pennsylvania, where they met with staff, spent time in the Museum and Library & Research Center, and toured the area. Rory and Kaai will be relocating to the area as soon as the immigration challenges and travel restrictions due to COVID-19 permit.
Some of you may already be familiar with Rory as he is also a well-known author and lecturer. His recent publications include the book Harrison Decoded: Towards a Perfect Pendulum Clock, which he edited with Jonathan Betts, and the article “George Graham and the Orrery” in the journal Nuncius.
Until Rory’s relocation to the United States is complete, he will be working closely with an on-boarding team assembled by the NAWCC Board of Directors to introduce him to the opportunities and challenges before us and to ensure a smooth transition. Rory will be participating in strategic and financial planning immediately, which will allow him to hit the ground running when he arrives in Columbia
You can read more about Rory McEvoy and this exciting announcement in the upcoming March/April issue of the Watch & Clock Bulletin.
Please join the entire Board and staff in welcoming Rory to the NAWCC community.
It's known as a bolt tool, and is used for flat polishing small items, particularly screws, which are held in one of the slots in the clamp at the bottom of your pictures. The first picture is of the top of the tool with the adjusting screws, and the second is the underside, showing the two levelling screws, and is the side where the screw heads are mounted. In use, the two levelling screws are adjusted so that the screw or other part is level with the flat surface of the oilstone or polishing plate. There are other, more complicated versions of this tool, but they all work the same way to achieve the desirable truly flat polish on the object.
Thanks so much, I guess I was overthinking it. New to this obsession and so far just happy to get everything back together....polishing will come later, maybe!
I haven't read Daniels, but wouldn't that be tin and not zinc ?
No, it's definitely a zinc plate. You should read it sometime!
Giving the appearance of being shop made, its anyones guess as to what it was made for.
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I venture to suggest that 'almost certainly' should be abbreviated to 'certainly'. I have made and used these for flat polishing, as have generations of watchmakers for as long as watches have been made by hand methods. That other methods have been developed which utilise machinery is equally certain, but this tool's purpose is clear.
Graham
Jerry,
Respectfully just guessing here, but think that possibly the third steel "leg" which does not appear to be adjustable is there simply to slow down/prevent the brass body of the jig from being ground away while polishing the screws/bolts...or it was possibly adjusted just a hair proud of the jig surface and then slipping the bolt to be polished down to that same point ...essentially the polishing surface, and then securing it.....Now that I said that I tried un threading it and low and behold it too is slightly adjustable albeit without a locking bolt....there is about one thread left above the body......perhaps it started out significantly longer but was slowly worn away over the years as most of the pressure I assume would have been applied on that side if the jig and it would be slowly simutaneously polished away with the bolt heads. Your best practice tip is no doubt true but I would think you could have all 3 legs on a true and flat polishing surface (avoiding the added variable of trying to keep 2 separate plates/planes parallel) although I guess keeping the leveling legs off the surface explains why they are longer..... anyway the benefit of 3 would be that they are always stable as opposed to 4 which would be continually frustrating to keep in unison so to speak and 2 which would not provide any stability at all....it's what makes tripods so great....occasional redressing of the polishing stone would keep the surface true. Someday I will give it a go on a flat hard Arkansas stone and depending on the results maybe post a pic ! Thanks
Now that is a new one to me. It is interesting how things come to be named across cultures.
Thank you both! I never took the time to research the derivation, I just used the thing (shame on me).
Isn't that just a watch movement as shewn by Graham... with the bolt. Swing tool on the other hand, since we were talking about black polishing... 
)
How do you finish a short screw with a shallow head with the locknuts on that side of the plate?
That's what I thought, and I agree that the screws in the edge are a neater idea.
