Stickley Mantle Clock

[Michael Sobik]

I'm embarrassed to write that I haven't posted here since 2009. You all know the story. Moved across the country, quit my job, started a business with my wife, worked crazy hours while raising our son. However, I didn't stop building furniture this past eight years. I crafted a bunch of stuff for the house, a full bedroom set for my son, gifts for friends, etc. But this is the first piece I've made for myself in quite some time. I saw the article by Glen Huey in PWW December (#173), but it's taken me this long to get around to it.

I had just finished up a project and thought this would be a good quick piece I could finish quickly. I had forgotten how time intensive clocks can be. This is my second clock, and the detail work surprised me yet again.

It's made from QSWO I had leftover from a prior project. The door is book matched. Hand cut pinned through mortise and tenons. Hand cut dovetails. Raised panel back. I made the leaded glass window myself. Hinges are Brusso. It has a mechanical Hermle 131-070 bim bam movement. The dial is copper that I etched with ferric chloride and filled with paint. The dial design comes from the best photo I could find of an original dial that I had vectorized and cut on a vinyl resist for the etching.





Finish schedule:

- Ammonia fumed with 20% ammonia for about 6 hours
- BLO
- superblond shellac 1lb
- glazed with Minwax Hickory gel stain
- superblond shellac 1lb
- three coats Pratt and Lambert 38 wiping varnish
- Liberon Black Bison Wax

[Michael Sobik]

Here's an original dial and my reproduction.





Here's the vinyl resist as well as the clay dam I made to hold the etching fluid.



Etched for about three hours.



It feels good to be able to post a completed project. If anyone's interested, I do have the vector file as well as about five vinyl masks leftover. If you want one, please PM me. Thanks for taking a look and please don't hesitate with any questions.

[lowell holmes]

You did good, I'm impressed.

[Jim Becker]

Wow....beautiful work! And welcome back!

[Rob Luter]

Nice. I love the fumed oak.

[keith wootton]

very well done, michael!

i finished building the same clock earlier this year, and got some parts right and some wrong.

i used the dovetail spacing the glen used because it was easy measuring and fit my chisels well. wrong choice.

am looking for a do over and will be sending you a pm on the mask. the paper clock faces that glen mentions in popular woodworking are no longer available i got a copper one from rodney hill on etsey...

i used a quartz battery clock movement that i hate, but i was worried about the pendulum length. i was able to center the pendulum perfectly because it is only decorative. does your pendulum sit evenly in the window? it looks a little high in the pictures..... and the people at clockworks were unhelpful in getting a measurement from the center of the clock face, to the middle of the pendulum.

the parts i got right were using very old glass for the window, and the color. even in the very small pieces of glass, the irregularity and bubbles in the glass is noticable. fuming the oak, which looks very grey and a mistake until you add the shellac, is the perfect color. i used amber...

[Michael Sobik]

Hi Keith,

I did try and use the dovetail count and spacing that is visible on some originals. It makes the half pins very delicate though.

I too was worried about the pendulum length. You are correct that it is visible in the upper half of the window and is not perfectly centered. It is a 11cm movement, and I think a 12cm movement would be just about perfect.

Edited to correct movement length from 7cm to 11cm.