Thank you hat was wonderful! Tedious at times but incredible workman ship.
MC
I would like to hire the salesperson that managed to sell a steel block to every jeweler on the planet without telling them what it is for. As a bench guy that is sure he knows everything, I can tell you people that I have no idea and have owned one for years. tom
2 Likes
Just speculating here, but arenāt many of those holes way too large for a watchmakerās use?
I can imagine a similar discussion on the watchmakers forum: I know about the slots, of course, but does anyone know what the large holes are used for?
Alec
2 Likes
I have seen transfer punches placed in the holes to create a jig.
Descriptions I have found for the slots are for securing and forming wire. I imagine the larger holes can also be used for various tubing. Can I forward a guess that the hex anvil was adopted by jewelers, but originally used for/by machinists (industrial)?
Does this diagram make sense to anyone? ā¦to determine the function of the riveting block holes.
Not the beveled-looking swage type, but the rivet type.
I would assume the through-holes would have the same function as a typical swage block used to support hot metal so they can be formed in Smithing, but āweā use them for less industrial means.
Hi @Betty2
Does this diagram make sense to anyone? ā¦to determine the function of the riveting block holes.
Not the beveled-looking swage type, but the rivet type.
I much prefer the idea @Alec suggested, that the block is meant to vex both watchmakers and jewelers, and what @TomArnold said, that there is a master salesman out there selling useless but intriguing steel blocks.
However, it does look as if a person could pre-form one end of a rivet as suggested in the diagram you posted. The only problem with that is that when you hammer to form the remaining rivet head the first, pre-formed head is going to be flattened further.
A pre-formed rivet head would have to rest in an identical cavity to keep its shape while you hammered the other end. If the so-called riveting block really was for riveting there would be a series of different size rivet head cavities, not through-the-block holes.
Next time I do some riveting I will use the block as your diagram suggests to see how that actually turns out, though usually I prefer to make āinvisibleā rivets or flush rivets with a contrasting colored metal.
These āriveting blocksā seem to be a great conversation pieceā¦
Regards,
Neil A
Interesting to see this topic revisited. The only answer I could get from
my original question was āthe slots are there in case you need themā
seems like the holes in the anvil would make very big rivet headsā¦
Julie
If you really want to know how the block is used just go to YouTube and enter something like how do you use a riveting block and you will see itās use demonstrated. Most of the guessers on this thread have gotten it wrong.
Jerry in Kodiak
Jerry, thanks for suggesting what should have been more obvious. Iāll have to add youtube to places to search from now on.
I found one video using a block like the ones pictured in this thread. It demoed the making of headpins (works for a rivet as well), pretty much the way Betty suggested.
The video I appreciated the most was this by Eugenia Chan:
Thatās what I would call a better riveting block, though to be perfectly honest excellent rivets can be made without either tool. If I had to pick one block it would be hers.
Eugenia Chan has a few more interesting tools on her website:
Might be worth a look if you do torch-fired enameling. Her titanium clamp for soldering bezel strips closed looks really handy. Another one of those āI should have thought of thatā ideas.
It is probably not proper to paste a picture of her clamp here, so use this link to see it:
Hereās the shot I liked the best:
Regards,
Neil A
@jholtak
If you cannot describe why we are wrong, then please post a link to something which will educate us. I could not find any videos showing the intended use of this riveting block.
~
I think a riveting stake can be inserted into one of the holes in order to support the stake while using it.
This might be an example of a specific kind of riveting stake: http://watchmakingblog.com/2010/10/06/why-a-castle-rivet/
~
These two archived threads might help:
~
@seth-ganoksin-admin
We donāt need no decorated space hogging links that donāt even look like a link.
If it aināt broke, donāt fix it.
Itās called a bench block and it is used by a watchmaker. I trained as a watchmaker 40 years ago and we each had one. The block is made to support various parts while you work on them with out doing any damage to the pivots on the ends of the pinions. For most riveting you do on a watch part it is a collar that is being struck on a pinion to attach a gear to it using a punch that has a hole drilled up into it to accept the other end of the pinion and pivot. Most of this is done on a staking set but sometimes you donāt want to drag that tool out to make a little adjustment. The slots are for when you are adjusting a palate fork. The little piece that goes back and forth and makes the actual ticking sound when it is struck by the palate jewel that is on the balance wheel. The palate fork is very fragile and it needs to be supported every where except at the pinion so you set it in the slot instead of over a hole. by using the correct width of slot you can check to see if the palate fork pinion is true. 99 times out of a hundred it is used just as a safe place to set wheels where the wonāt get damaged by just setting them down on the bench.
4 Likes
Itās called a bench block and it is used by a watchmaker. I trained as a watchmaker 40 years ago and we each had one. The block is made to support various parts while you work on them with out doing any damage to the pivots on the ends of the pinions. For most riveting you do on a watch part it is a collar that is being struck on a pinion to attach a gear to it using a punch that has a hole drilled up into it to accept the other end of the pinion and pivot. Most of this is done on a staking set but sometimes you donāt want to drag that tool out to make a little adjustment. The slots are for when you are adjusting a palate fork. The little piece that goes back and forth and makes the actual ticking sound when it is struck by the palate jewel that is on the balance wheel. The palate fork is very fragile and it needs to be supported every where except at the pinion so you set it in the slot instead of over a hole. by using the correct width of slot you can check to see if the palate fork pinion is true. 99 times out of a hundred it is used just as a safe place to set wheels where the wonāt get damaged by just setting them down on the bench.
Thank you! What you posted is roughly what I thought I recalled from the time I spent brushing elbows with the Clock and Watch Making students at Bowman Tech, so many years ago, but I was studying Diamond Setying and Jewelry Repair, myself, so I was not certain how accurate my memory was.
The art of Clock and Watch Making was fascinating to observe, but not my field of interest. Watching a student cut gear teeth on new escapement wheels, I quickly came to the conclusion that this art required way too much math and precision for me!
2 Likes
Thank you John.
If you are saying that you would sometimes put the punch in the bench block hole instead of using the staking set, would you also say the only advantage of using the staking set might be a more accurate strike?
The only use I can see for the slots on the side of this block would be for a quick draw thru of the wire to straiten it if the rivet is slightly bent. Other than that, I am not sure.
I believe they are used like the slots in a bending brake: giving access and relief for a fin or t seam sort of situation.
Not really, a staking set is the only way I would rivet a wheel on a new pinion. It would not be possible to keep everything straight on a bench block. But I would set a balance wheel on one of the holes and push the hairspring collet down or move the collet around to get it in beat. We never did much actual pounding on it. Its just a smooth square steady resting place for making minor adjustments.
1 Like