Full Restoration of Colonial Manufacturing Co/Winterhalder/HWN Grandfather Clock...

[rstangeby]

I have recently acquired a clock that I believe I have identified so far as (mostly by using the NAWCC Site):
Colonial Manufacturing Co./Winterhalder/HWN grandfather clock circa 1919-1929. More likely 1919-1925, since there are no "Hawina" markings on it. It is marked with HWN in multiple locations and is stamped "Made in Germany" twice.
I believe a Colonial Manufacturing Co. cabinet. There is a clear "I34G" mark on the back, which I believe to be the model number.
Whittington Westminster Quarter-hour Chime.
Mayland Maker Clock Chimes.
The only history I have on the clock is that it sat unused for the last ten years.
Following the example of Brian Fisher (fellow NAWCC member), I have decided to post a history of the restoration on this thread.
My goal is to have a fully functional clock that retains its original character that I can enjoy and hand down to my family.
It needs some work. It is very dirty. All of the chimes have cracks in them. The cabinet has a large crack in it. All of the hinges are broken. And the worst damage is the beautiful hand painted moon phase dial is faded and damaged. I have my work cut out for me.
I am no clock expert. I have been a carpenter since I was young, and I have always been mechanically inclined. I have never been afraid of a challenge.
Please join me on this journey.
But, please be patient.

 

[Burkhard Rasch]

a nice clock to start with.Looking forward to the developement of this thread!Good luck!
Burkhard

 

[rstangeby]

I haven’t been able to post lately. I have been working a lot...
Here is what I have been able to get done with the clock so far:
I decided that I needed to have a horologist clean, assess and repair the mechanism. After some research, I found one not too far away that specializes in antique clocks, Steve Marks in Thousand Oaks, CA. I brought him the mechanism with face, and the strikers. He and his wife seemed excited to work on it. After about two hours of assessment, he said it would cost $1200-1800 for his work. Then he asked if that scared me. I calmly reply, “ No, it doesn’t “. He said that he would take a while, expecting to come over for a mechanism test in April to June, 2022. Hmmmm, I guess I’ll need to exercise my patience.
We discussed the state of the hand painted moon phase disk (see attached photos). The top part that is in the photos needs touch up, but is not in that bad of shape. But the bottom part is not in good shape. Steve's wife is a graphic artist by trade, and when I left them she was actively researching someone that could do an antique restoration on the moon phase disc. If any of you have any recommendations, please let me know. I am all ears.
In the meantime, I turned my attention to the rest of the clock. I pulled the weights apart to prepare them for buffing and polishing. As I suspected, they are full of lead, made by the United Lead Company (see attached photos). By my calculations, there is 52 1/2 pounds of lead in my clock, not counting the lead that is in the pendulum. Granted, when the clock was built we didn't know the "evils" of lead that we now know. I decided that when I reassemble the weights I will add some sealant to keep contamination down, plus when I fix the bottom of the cabinet, I will caulk that as well. That will hopefully eliminate any contamination to my future grandkids.
I stared taking the cabinet apart. The existing hinges are designed to be invisible with the doors closed and seem to be made out of a cast metal. However... There is a reason why you don't see hinges made like this anymore. All five hinges are broken in one way or another. And when they broke, they caused damage to the wood as the doors were opened and closed. I don't think it would serve the clock well to even try to find replacements of this type. They are proving to be very difficult to even remove the broken parts. I fear I will have to cause even more damage just getting them removed. My initial thought is to accept some damage and plan on repairing the damage and holes in anticipation of a different style hinge. But I don't know what other style would be appropriate for the age. Again, if any of you have any recommendations, please let me know. I am all ears (see attached photos).
All for now. More soon...

 

[rstangeby]

An interesting twist on the hinges. With some difficulty, I removed all 5 hinges in pieces (see photo). I discussed with my wife my plans of replacing them with a more conventional butt hinge. She has a way of straightening out my plans sometimes. She said that my clock had invisible hinges, so it needs new invisible hinges. So.... I did some more research. I found a company that makes a patented invisible hinge called Soss. I thought they might do the job nicely, although they are not exactly like the old hinges because they have a "leaf" like butt hinge do. As I was searching their website more, I found their "barrel hinges" that look almost exactly like the old hinges. I got out my magnifying glass and searched the pieces of the old hinges for any letters or trademarks. After a little polishing, to my surprise, I found "Soss" on them! It made sense, since Soss has been around since the late 1800's. On their website it says "SOSS® Invisible Barrel Hinges are not recommended for vertical or load bearing application". They were/are made for an application such as a hinged box. So, either the cabinet company used the hinges wrong over a hundred years ago, or they realized in the meantime that they do not work well in that application. In summary, I feel justified in using modern Soss hinges with the leafs that will support the door load.

 

[rstangeby]

I did some testing on the cabinet and I am pretty sure it is stained mahogany finished with shellac, which would be characteristic of the time period. I brought some pieces, including the bonnet, to my hardwood store. They agreed that it is mahogany. I got some wood to do some of the repairing. I have to repair a few carved circles on the lower door (see door photo) and the bottom of the cabinet seems to have been completely broken out when the clock was improperly moved (see photo). They were able to give me a good recommendation of someone to talk to about restoring the finish. Turns out that the finish guy is a friend of a friend of mine in the Kenpo Karate world that I have heard about for years. I was happy to finally meet him, and he was happy to assess my project and give me advice. So, from the hardwood store and the finish guy, I am pretty sure that the bonnet and the bottom of the cabinet have a mahogany burl wood onlay. Both are cracked, the bottom worse than the top (see photos). I believe I will be restoring the cabinet itself, but I think I will be leaving both cracks as battle scars from the last 100 years. Sometimes it makes it worse to try and hide something.

 

[Andy Dervan]

The 1346 is case number there is no correlation between case number and movement used in the case. Colonial Mfg. Co. generally offered customers 3-5 movements options with the case styles in this time period. The higher end cases utilized higher end movements.

Case was not listed in 1919-1920 catalog and there were similar case numbers around it indicates that it was not popular model so it had very short run probably only 1-2 years..

WWI disrupted 'Colonial Mfg. Co. obtaining movements from Germany..

Hans Winterhalder is assoicated with HWN trademark that was issued in 1919. It was often stamped on movement and gong blocks.


Andy Dervan

 

[rstangeby]

To me, the writing on the case looks like “I34G” with a capital i being the first character and a capital g as the last. Could that be the case, or did the stenciling they used just make it look that way?

 

[Andy Dervan]

It is a stencil; Colonial Mfg. Co. case model numbers were 4 numerical digits: it is 1346; I have seen an I for1. It issued case model numbers in sequence, sometimes number was skipped as that model was not commercialized.

Andy Dervan

 

[rstangeby]

I did a little polishing on one of the weight casings. I started Tripoli compound and a sisal wheel. It took about two hours to get the first polish done. I think it looks pretty good. I will end up buffing with one or two more finer compounds.

 

[brian fisher]

Your weight looks nice. The original finish would have been a brushed brass look. If you want to reproduce a more authentic look, you can use 600 grit sandpaper. It would be best to find a way to spin the weight shell then just rub the sandpaper slowly up and down the cylinder

 

[rstangeby]

Thanks for that input. I don’t suppose you have a picture or a link that I can get something to aim.

 

[rstangeby]

Also, should I finish the pendulum that way as well?

 

[rstangeby]

I cut some new circles out of mahogany, and glue the lower door detail back into place. It came out pretty good.

 

[rstangeby]

Installing the modern Soss Hinges was challenging. While picking out the right size of hinge, it ended up being a trade off between the hinges having enough space between the door and the jamb when open to 90 degrees, and the hinge being too big for the jamb. I did my best. I wish I had more clearance when the doors are open, but I went with the largest hinge I could fit. It will have to be okay.
It is also challenging to install the hinges. I worked as a finish carpenter for years when I was younger, and I am no stranger to installing hinges. But these are different, requiring two different depths of mortising. It is challenging enough to install them on a new jamb, but in my case I had to contend with the existing holes that the previous Soss hinges used. I had to use as much of the old hole as possible. After making my own templates, I used a combination of a door mortising router bit and a 1/2" Forstner bit. I had damage to contend with before I even started installing the new hinges that was caused by the old hinges being broken for what must have been years. And I cannot pretend that I didn't cause any new damage trying to remove those old hinges. I have to admit that at this time, seeing the extent of the damage that needed to be fixed, I got a little discouraged in my project. But I finally got to see the clock with the doors attached for the first time since I bought it.
I have been repairing the damage as best I can. I have been using a good wood putty on the small stuff and I have been using Mirrorcast epoxy with a black colorant mixed in where strength is a concern, like around the hinges. I found that I can sand the epoxy once dry with 220 grit and the stain actually works well with it.

Speaking of the stain. I feel really lucky to have gotten some advice from that karate acquaintance of mine, plus the guys at Woodcraft in Ventura. I am using General Finishes oil based stain. 10 parts spiced walnut with 1 part black. It looks almost identical to the original stain used over 100 years ago. Plus, I have found that I can use it to cover up the repairs very well depending on how long I let it sit before wiping off the excess.

 

[rstangeby]

The clock has been missing the key to the lower door since I got it. Luckily, it was in the unlocked position. I was able to get at the mechanism. I did some measuring, and then did some serious searching on the internet to find a key. I couldn't find a key that I thought was exactly the right dimensions, so I ended up ordering 3-4 keys that were close. I had to modify one of them by filing down the bit some, and it ended up working perfectly. It is a nice key; solid brass. So I ordered another identical key and modified it. I will attach that one to the cabinet somewhere, just in case the new key ever gets misplaced.

 

[brian fisher]

Also, should I finish the pendulum that way as well?

some were brushed such as the herschede, some were polished such as the jacques clocks. I really don't know about this particular model. you should be able to look at the bob and tell?

looks like you are doing a nice job so far. keep up the good work.

 

[tracerjack]

The new hinges look great. Well worth the trouble you had trying to install them. From what you have done so far, I think in the end you are going to be very happy with the clock.

 

[rstangeby]

The refinishing of the cabinet is coming along nicely. Reference the pictures in the beginning of this thread, the 100+ year old shellac finish was in poor shape. It had a lot of alligatoring. Enough that I knew it would take more than just cleaning. But I did not want to strip and refinish. That would make it look too new and all of its scars and character would be erased. I did much research and found many techniques to try. However, like all projects of this type, it came down to trial and error to see what worked best for my particular situation.
Here is what I found worked best for me. For the first step, I used Sunnyside General Purpose Cleaner with 0000 steel wool. It would take off the dirt, wax, gunk, etc. I found that it would "liquify" the top alligator layer of shellac and it would be taken away by the steel wool. It had kind of a delayed reaction and I had a window of opportunity. As I started to rub, it would take a few seconds to liquify, but if I took to long, it would re-solidify. So I would work in small sections. In this way, I was able to get to a fairly smooth surface with some layer of shellac left.
Reference the pictures, this clock had been improperly moved, probably multiple times. The chimes had scratched the back of the cabinet fairly deeply. And it is apparent that the chimes and/or weights had been dropped, again probably multiple times, damaging the inside and bottom of the cabinet. In fact, the bottom board was broken out and missing when I acquired the clock. I replaced the bottom board with a new piece of mahogany. The damage to the inside the cabinet was severe enough that I had to sand it down to bare wood.
Next I did my repair work as described above.
Staining came next. I used the General Finishes oil based stain (10 parts Spiced Walnut with 1 part Black). I decided that because of the need to cover the repairs, I would stain the entire cabinet, at least lightly, to make it look even. So then it become necessary to put more layers of shellac over the entire cabinet too. I needed to cover the repairs as best as possible without overstraining and making the cabinet look "painted". It came down to how long I let the stain sit before wiping. I applied the stain with a throw away sponge brush. It made a big difference on what I wiped with. When I needed more grain to show through, I would use a cotton cloth. When I needed the stain to be thicker, I would use a clean sponge brush and wipe the brush off on a clean cloth periodically. Once stained, I gave it at least 24 hours to dry before any other staining or finishing from there. After drying, I used a 3m Scotch-Brite Ultra Fine Hand Pad 7448 (equivalent to 00 steel wool) to even out the stain as necessary and/or thin the stain to make it more transparent. I like these pads as they are synthetic and don't leave little bits of steel wool all over.
As I started the process of putting on more layers of shellac, I found that if I tried to brush or "fade" over the stain, it would move it around to much, creating bad spots. So, the first shellac step was done with spray. I would then let that dry for at least 24 hours. This kind of "set" the stain, and I could then continue the shellac with any other technique I desired. I decided to spray the parts with detail and "French Polish" the flat parts. Between "coats" I let it dry for at least 24 hours and then hit it with the 3m Scotch-Brite Ultra Fine Hand Pad.
After the new shellac was applied, I used 0000 steel wool with a little Howard's Citrus Sheild Premium Paste Wax to even out the shellac layer. I tried using a 3m synthetic pad equivalent to 0000 steel wool to do this at first, but it didn't work as well. I guess sometimes nothing works as well as old fashioned steel wool. I wiped well to remove the excess wax and little bits of steel wool.
Finally, I waxed well with the Howard's.
The first piece I finished was the bezel around the clock face. I am currently working on finishing the rest. But I was so excited with the result on the bezel that I just had to post. I hope you can see the difference. Take a look at the before and after pictures and let me know what you think.





Before:


After:


Before:


After:

 

[rstangeby]

I replaced the fabric on the side details with speaker fabric. My wife had a good idea to use a "fabric stretcher" that we got from Michaels craft store. I tried a number of different glues, but the one that seem to work the best was good old fashioned white wood glue, which is probably characteristic of the glue that they would have used orignially.



I think they came out nice,

 

[rstangeby]

Here's a couple of more before and after photos. I was trying to capture how well the refinishing process worked to take out the "alligatoring" and how "rich" the finish came out. It was a lot of work, but I think it was worth it!

Before: After:

 

[rstangeby]

Here is a couple of photos with the finished cabinet in my living room. The glass was cleaned and mounted in the doors. The doors were reinstalled and adjusted. They are working great...

 

[rstangeby]

A couple more photos with the finished cabinet in my living room in the daylight. I am pretty happy with the results so far...

 

[rstangeby]

Following Brian Fisher's advice, I did "brush" the weight shells after polishing. I polished the shells with Tripoli compound on a Sisal wheel. Then I put a short piece of pvc pipe in my vice to hold the shell. I used a 400 grit sandpaper and slowing rotated the shell to get fairly uniform lines. I think it turned out well...

 

[rstangeby]

I also "brushed" the shell caps. I was able to mount them one a bolt and put them in a drill mounted on my vice. I could then run the drill fairly slowly and brush with the same 400 grit paper.

 

[rstangeby]

Next I turned my attention on the chimes. My clock has 8. They appear to be brass with a thin layer of chrome on them. The were made by Mayland, a company that has been around since at least the turn of the last century.
I tried polishing them at first with the sisal wheel and Tripoli compound, but the chrome is so thin that I started seeing through to the brass. I ended up just buffing them with white rouge and then red jeweler's rouge. They didn't turn out new looking, but they look way better than when I got them...

 

[brian fisher]

nice work. the speaker grill fabric probably would have been held on originally with hyde glue. however, the method you used will work just fine.

its pretty amazing to me how various items such as the tubes and weights were all made by the same companies across the board for pretty much every tubular bell manufacturer that sold here in the USA.

the finish on your clock was in much better shape than the 11 tube jacques i restored a few years ago. i actually kind of liked the patina on your cabinet, but i think the most important thing is that you are happier with it now that you have it finished up.

the shiny silver finish on your bells is actually nickel plating. pretty close to chrome but a slightly darker look. i am surprised to hear that your polishing wheel is taking it off. i hadn't experienced that before. I am not familiar with your polishing compound. i just purchased the green tube they sell at harbor freight. it worked perfectly for me.

 

[rstangeby]

Well, I haven't been able to post for awhile. Sorry.
Those of you who have been following my post will recall that I left the clock mechanism with a horologist nearby that specializes in antique clocks. He said it would take him until April to June, 2022 (a minimum of six months). When July 1st came and I hadn't heard from him, I got a little worried. Those nightmares I had of him passing away and my clock being in a thousand pieces mixed up with the pieces of other clocks popped back in my head... Well, I wasn't too far off. Steve "The Clock Doc" Marks of Oaks Clocks passed away in February, 2022...
To further fuel my stress about getting my clock mechanism back, I was just leaving to go out of town on business when I found all this out. My wife had to go deal with it for me. To make a long story shorter, Steve's long time live in girlfriend, who I previously thought was his wife, was left to sort out all of the precious clocks he had in his possession. My wife, who is great in these situations, after having knocked on the door and finding no one (Steve had been working out of his home), had to go into detective mode. She was able to find some neighbors to fill her in on what had happened and that the girlfriend still lived there and would be home from work after 6pm. My wife returned with flowers. After an hour conversation in the entryway, my wife heard all about how horrible the other patrons had been to her as she was trying to sort out the details of the clocks left in her possession that were all over the house, garage and storage unit. My wife is very empathetic and understanding, and just told her how sorry we were to hear about Steve's passing. As she was leaving, the girlfriend asked if she would like to just take a quick look in the garage to see they could find it. Apparently, they had only to move a few things around, and there it was... Intact... It had never been touched by Steve...



So... Back to the drawing board on how to restore the mechanism.
Previously, my wife and I had stopped into a shop in Solvang, CA called Renaissance Antiques and HRS Clocks shortly after we acquired to the clock and the mechanism was already with Steve. I had discussed the clock with the owner. He had made the offer to let him know if we needed any help. So I took him up on it. They now have the mechanism and moon phase disk. How long did they say it would take? You guessed it...Six months...

 

[PatH]

So glad to hear that you were able to recover your clock so quickly. In today's market, 6 months doesn't seem out of line. There are fewer and fewer qualified individuals still doing clock repair, so most have quite a long wait list. We look forward to updates and seeing the finished clock.

 

[Jeff Salmon]

So glad to hear that you were able to recover your clock so quickly. In today's market, 6 months doesn't seem out of line. There are fewer and fewer qualified individuals still doing clock repair, so most have quite a long wait list. We look forward to updates and seeing the finished clock.

How many of us have had a client with a clock to repair say,
"This was in my closet for 8 years. It was my parent's clock and I was always fond of it running in the house. I want to make it run again....HOW MUCH, you say. Well, OK, I'll have it done. I am in no hurry, though. It's been in my closet for 8 years. I say, "Well, I do have a bit of work to do, along with other things, and the work will take about 4-6 weeks." "That's fine," client says. In 2 weeks they call just wondering how the work is going....they really miss their clock.

That's still the state of the repair business.

 

[rstangeby]

I got the tubes installed...

 

[rstangeby]

So... At the end of March, the mechanism and moon disk were done and I picked them up. The mechanism got a full restoration. Renaissance Antiques of Solvang, CA (HRS Clocks) did a beautiful job. My thanks to Ron, Nick and Cavon. They also arranged for the moon disk to be "touched up"; almost repainted following the original design.

 

[rstangeby]

I got the mechanism installed...

 

[rstangeby]

Finally, after about a year and a half, I was able to start my Colonial Manufacturing Co./Winterhalder/HWN grandfather clock circa 1919-1929...
It is running well. Keeping really good time... However, there are two small issues at the moment that I still need to sort out.
First, the stroke on the strike mechanism is much shorter than the chime; so much so that it is noticeable and doesn't sound right.
Second, the Westminster chime is off. I am no expert (by any means), and I had to educate myself on it. It is actually very interesting how Westminster Quarters is a series of 5 "changes" of four notes. Wikipedia has a good article on it:

Westminster Quarters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I have been able to determine that my clock is one "change" early.
I have been working with Ron (owner of Renaissance Antiques) on how to remedy the situation. We have decided to have one of his clock repairmen come by my house to access the situation. I will keep you posted...

 

[Steve Neul]

I haven’t been able to post lately. I have been working a lot...
Here is what I have been able to get done with the clock so far:
I decided that I needed to have a horologist clean, assess and repair the mechanism. After some research, I found one not too far away that specializes in antique clocks, Steve Marks in Thousand Oaks, CA. I brought him the mechanism with face, and the strikers. He and his wife seemed excited to work on it. After about two hours of assessment, he said it would cost $1200-1800 for his work. Then he asked if that scared me. I calmly reply, “ No, it doesn’t “. He said that he would take a while, expecting to come over for a mechanism test in April to June, 2022. Hmmmm, I guess I’ll need to exercise my patience.
We discussed the state of the hand painted moon phase disk (see attached photos). The top part that is in the photos needs touch up, but is not in that bad of shape. But the bottom part is not in good shape. Steve's wife is a graphic artist by trade, and when I left them she was actively researching someone that could do an antique restoration on the moon phase disc. If any of you have any recommendations, please let me know. I am all ears.
In the meantime, I turned my attention to the rest of the clock. I pulled the weights apart to prepare them for buffing and polishing. As I suspected, they are full of lead, made by the United Lead Company (see attached photos). By my calculations, there is 52 1/2 pounds of lead in my clock, not counting the lead that is in the pendulum. Granted, when the clock was built we didn't know the "evils" of lead that we now know. I decided that when I reassemble the weights I will add some sealant to keep contamination down, plus when I fix the bottom of the cabinet, I will caulk that as well. That will hopefully eliminate any contamination to my future grandkids.
I stared taking the cabinet apart. The existing hinges are designed to be invisible with the doors closed and seem to be made out of a cast metal. However... There is a reason why you don't see hinges made like this anymore. All five hinges are broken in one way or another. And when they broke, they caused damage to the wood as the doors were opened and closed. I don't think it would serve the clock well to even try to find replacements of this type. They are proving to be very difficult to even remove the broken parts. I fear I will have to cause even more damage just getting them removed. My initial thought is to accept some damage and plan on repairing the damage and holes in anticipation of a different style hinge. But I don't know what other style would be appropriate for the age. Again, if any of you have any recommendations, please let me know. I am all ears (see attached photos).
All for now. More soon...

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The hinges, they do still make the type. I don't know the size you need but check out SOSS hinges. They range in size from very tiny to be used on house doors.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the lead, when they went nuts on lead it was from young children chewing on window sills which was painted with white paint. Then they were using lead to make white pigment. You might just clean the weights and coat them with urethane to put a plastic coating on the lead.

 

[J. A. Olson]

On some of these rack-operated chime movements, you would turn the minute hand from the top of hour (60 minutes mark) towards the quarter-after hour (15 minutes). The chime train will go into warning - instead of setting the chime off right at the quarter-after hour, turn the hand back to the top of hour and it should play another section of the chime. This is done until the chimes are in sync again.

If this doesn't work or cannot be done, try manually setting off the chime train instead.
The rack operated quarter chimes do not stay in sequence if they are unsilenced at a different time compared to when they were turned off.

Herschede had a patented self-synchronization device which was implemented on many of their own clocks.

The eight bells chime is Whittington and should be the same arrangement Herschede used.