Chapter 3

The Early Clockmakers

Craftsmen have constantly developed specialist tools and equipment. A master was paid to introduce his apprentices to the ‘secrets’ of the trade; innovations were generally closely guarded and few details of how early clocks and watches were made have survived. Horologists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries produced intricate and beautiful devices, seemingly with the aid of simple hand tools. Descriptions of the tools and equipment they developed are rare, so we need to treasure what few sources survive to shed even a little light on the work of these early artisans.

Clockmaking Tools

Files and Saws

The steel file was one of the most important tools in clockmaking, as it was in other crafts, such as making locks and weapons. Archaeologists have discovered bronze rasps from ancient Egypt dating from 1400bc, and from the seventh-centurybc iron rasps are known to have been used by the Assyrians. Advances in steel making by the Middle Ages resulted in the development of hardened steel files, which were very similar to modern files. File blanks were originally forged, then the teeth were cut into the surface with a chisel. The file was then hardened by heating and quenching the steel.

By the sixteenth century, file-making had reached a high degree of perfection and skilled craftsmen could produce small precision files with teeth numbered in the thousands. The illustration shows a complete workshop with a forge in the background. The file cutter uses an angled hammer to strike a chisel made from high-carbon steel – another hammer can be seen beside the anvil. The file blank, in its soft state, was held on a lead block with a strap, which was tensioned with a lever operated by the artisan’s foot. When it was finished, the file was heated to a high temperature in the forge (this is shown in the drawing), then quenched in oil or water to harden the steel.

File-making became concentrated in several areas, including Nuremberg in Germany, Florence in Italy and Sheffield in England. By the sixteenth century, the Lancashire town of Prescott had also become renowned for the quality of its files. The file cutter’s hammer in the illustration is from the nineteenth century, but is identical to those in the sixteenth century; Sheffield makers used it to cut files in exactly the same way as the Nuremberg file maker.

TheEncyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert of 1751 is one of the earliest sources of detailed drawings of many tools, including files and a piercing saw (Fig. 1). Tools such as these would still be familiar to artisans today.

Saws have an even longer history. Copper saws from as early as 3000bc are known to have been used in ancient Egypt to cut stone using