I've made jewels before and was thinking about trying to make some clock pallet inserts out of good tungsten carbide, maybe it could be used to reface old worn pallets? I know its very hard to work with but actually less work than natural stones. Or is this a dumb idea? Lol Dan
I used it in the clock I made. 30-Legged Gravity Escape Clock I used a diamond lapidary wheel that I happened to have to grind it with no difficulty. Not being well informed I did not realize that polishing the locking surface would have improved them further.
That's a very interesting clock. Have you noticed any wear on the other surfaces? I'm wondering if, because tungsten carbide is cemented, if it is possible to polish it enough to actually reduce friction, or if even if I got a black polish would it still look like cement under a microscope? And wear away the escape wheel.
Dan, I used tungsten carbide for the pallets in my Strasser Regulator clock project. An interesting discussion of jewels vs carbide can be found here. The clock has been in continuous use for about 5 years now and the pallets show no sign of wear, neither does the escape wheel teeth. 5 years is not a very long period of time to evaluate wear on clock pallets. It will be interesting to see how they look in 50 years after I am long gone .
