Pound

With a solid walnut skeleton frame, the striking movement, tuned brass tubular bells, and the zebrawood dials, this is my ‘artistic’ masterpiece.

At seven feet tall, it’s the largest wooden clock I’ve built.

This is also one of the most complex wooden clocks I’ve made. It has 30 gears, and over 1000 total parts count.

The movement is based on my antique Seth-Thomas mantle clock, which I took apart three times while I was designing this. This took me over a year to design and build.

It has a countwheel strike mechanism with tuned brass tubular bells which chime the half, and strike the hours.

It always bothered me that 12:30, 1:00, and 1:30 all sound the same in the middle of the night on a conventional strike mechanism, so I made the half-hour chime with a different (hard-headed) hammer. (Three hammers strike two bells.)

A “silence” lever on the back can quiet the strike.

This view shows the cable drums, the gearing and the separate, removable-for-maintenance frame that holds the movement.

The winding crank stores in a pocket at the rear. the Pound clock

The “Pound Clock” (don’t ask) was built for my sister as a wedding present.

This was my first ‘striking’ wooden clock, and a Grandfather seemed the apparent choice.

The dial and frame are obviously inspired by John Pickron’s works. (Where’d he go, anyway?)