Greetings and a welcome to Santiam Valley Clockworks
We are Joe and Aleta Bullard. Santiam Valley Clockworks is our home business. Formerly known as Time and Again Clockworks, we served Northeast Kansas since the summer of 2003. I have something of an acquired passion about mechanical clocks. I find them very much intriguing. Even the least expensive of them is a precision piece of machinery.
Properly maintained, mechanical clocks seldom need repair, but when repair is necessary, it must be done properly or you risk losing perhaps a valuable family heirloom.
We invite you to browse through this site and see what it is I do. I’ve included a lot of images of various clocks I’ve serviced over the years. There’s a lot of written material in this. It’s there, and I’d like for your to take the time to read it, because I ‘m asking you to trust me with a very important piece of your family's history.
The “Clock Talk” button takes you through a series of observations and thoughts about mechanical clocks if you’re considering the purchase of one.
There are also discussions of antique clocks and owner/user service like setting it up and moving it.
The “Fees Schedule” and “Policies” buttons pretty much describe how I do things. Those two sections drive most transactions.
One thing to understand is that I do not share information about private customers and clients with anyone. All records and details of our transactions, your identity, and what you own are absolutely confidential. I am in private homes all over region. The privacy and personal security of our customers and clients is something we take very seriously.
A beautiful and highly desirable Gustav Becker 3 weight regulator. This clock has a chime sequence referred to as “Grand Sonnerie.” This clock dates to the early 20th century, perhaps as late as 1910.
Understand a few things about how we do business:
First I will not tell you how to fix a clock. There are several reasons for that. I examine and test clocks prior to even thinking about turning nuts and screws. If I don’t know what I’m looking for, I can’t repair it. If I tell you how to fix it and it doesn’t work, you lose your clock and I am liable for giving you bad advice. There are too many ways to hurt a customer (including physical injury - the main springs in a clock are about 8 feet each of coiled steel attitude. They will cut you quick, deep and repeatedly and not even apologize). That’s not a business plan for me.
There’s a significant difference between “repair” and “fix.” To “repair” you have find out why it’s doing what it’s doing or not doing what it’s supposed to do. Once you know that, you address it. You have to duplicate the failure in order to understand what the real problem is. A “fix” just addresses the symptom and the clock will fail again. That’s why I examine and test before working on a clock.
Second, I will not estimate a value for your clock. On your receipt, I will provide information I can find from authoritative sources about the value of the make and model you own or from comparable clocks, but you need to understand that buying and selling antique clocks is a rather arcane business. Don’t go up against an accomplished collector. They know what they’re doing and they know that you don’t. They’ll skin you pretty quick.
The bottom line is that the value of a clock is like the value of anything else: It’s whatever the guy standing in front of you is willing to pay for it.
Most important to me personally is that estimating the value of a customer’s clock is a conflict of interest for a clock repairman: The higher the value of the clock, the easier it is to justify a big repair bill. That also is not a business plan for me.
The other, and rather obvious, reason is that I get paid to
A beautiful Ansonia mantel clock from around 1900. This clock is one of many from a lot of American clock makers that are styled on the French Crystal Bracket clocks of the mid 19th century.
The dial is porcelain. It has the open, or “brocot” escapement (it’s in front of the dial instead of behind it or inside the movement). The escape pallets are jeweled as in “rubies.”
These are wonderful clocks. There aren’t a lot of them around. One thing to take into consideration is that, on some examples of these clocks, the ballast in the pendulum is actually two small glass tubes filled with mercury. Usually, however, the ballast elements are small polished steel inserts in the glass tubes.
The badly damaged escape wheel from a 19th century French Regulator. This clock is a true regulator.
A past attempt at repair by an unqualified repair operator nearly destroyed this irreplaceable component. Over half of the pins were badly damaged and had to be replaced. This entailed removing the old stumps and pieces of malleable brass wire, pressing in new .025 inch hard steel pivot stock and then using very fine diamond files and polishing tools to create and orient the impulse face on each pin.
The shiny substance is cyanoacrylate cement (Super Glue).
The cable drum wheel from an early 19th century (perhaps as early as 1820) “Mora” clock from Sweden. I have no hard data on this clock but from examining the pieces I believe it was shop built several decades before the Mora factory started production.
Repairing and setting up this clock is one of the more challenging jobs I’ve ever taken on. Success on a project like this is really enjoyable.
This wheel (it’s about the size of a silver dollar) was sand cast and isn’t really round. The hand cut gear teeth are very deep; I believe to compensate for this wheel (and the wheel it engages) being irregular in shape. The winding pawl and its leaf spring both bear file marks. There are virtually no machine tool markings anywhere on this movement. The single bolt that holds the movement together appears to be hand cut. No two pivots are sized consistently. The pivot bushings are brass “cookies” cast into holes made in the cast iron frame plates. These “cookies” are drilled to provide pivot bearings.
The overall design of the movement and several of its key components, though crudely made, are very similar to the beautifully machined and considerably more sophisticated Mora movements known to be of mid 19th century manufacturing. The later movements had a very different striking mechanism and used weights that are considerably lighter than the 10 pound weights used in this clock.
Note: Several of the teeth are broken or damaged. Repair of this wheel required the services of a very specialized metalsmith to analyze and replicate the brass, and then affect the repair.
A pair of elegant anniversary or “400 day” clocks from August Schatz. To the left is a miniature. The one on the right is a standard.
”Anniversaries” are perhaps the most sensitive clocks commonly found in the consumer market. Once you get it set up, it will literally run for over a year.
They’ve been a bit less than popular because they are difficult to maintain and adjust. There are no manufacturers making these in significant quantities. I do expect, consequently, that they will increase in value.
A celluloid case “Mastercrafter” electric clock from the 1950s. These clocks sold for around $5 when they were new. Very nice specimens like this can sell for as much as $300 today.
Usually owners take the incandescent light bulb out or loosen it so it does not light up as the older incandescent bulbs do run a bit hot and these nice little clocks can catch fire. “Celluloid” is like first cousin to movie film, gunpowder and cellophane. In this picture the lamp is lighted for display purposes only. We loosened it when we were done taking the picture.
A beautiful Mathias Bauerle Peerless. This clock is from Uhrenfabrik Bauerle of St. Georgen Germany. It dates from the mid to late 1920s.
This is a two weight clock: One weight drives the clock, the other drives the strike (Once at the half hour and it counts on the hour).
On clocks like this, the gong tone is a deep and mellow sound that has to be heard to be appreciated.
On this specimen, the cabinetry is nearly pristine. The finish is original exhibiting a beautiful and very desirable natural reticulation due to its age.
