Tid-Bit 11 - Making a Burnisher
Burnisher 101
How to make your own
Thinking about burnishers brings to mind one of my first MART’s. Never had I imagined there would be so many specialized tools for working on clocks and watches. And, while I had no idea what-so-ever what burnishing was all about, one savvy table holder made it clear that you had to have a burnisher if you ever wanted to work on clocks. I still have that burnisher, and several others that are similar - you just can’t have too many tools - especially ones as important as burnishers! Not that I knew how to use them, even when I was buying numbers two, three, and, well, you get the idea. If you would like to learn more about such burnishers I highly recommend David LaBounty’s article in the June 2006 NAWCC Bulletin, starting on page 323.
When I read David’s article I was struck by his statement “A true test of skill is burnishing a pivot by hand. It takes many hours of practice and frustration just to become moderately proficient and years before the task becomes routine.” Having tried to use commercial burnishers on the pivots in the clocks I love (Vienna Regulators), I can understand his comment. It is sort of like trying to drive a small nail with a 6 pound sledge hammer. My first MART find, and burnishers like it, is the reason it is so important for you to make your own burnisher.
Figure 1 gives a side-by-side comparison of three burnishers - the top two are commercially made, the bottom one is the burnisher handed down to me by my mentor, Ray Ashcraft.
Figure 9 – Burnisher laid on a fire brick and ready to be heated
I am often asked if the burnisher should not be tempered after hardening. The goal in heat treating a burnisher is to make the burnisher as hard as possible. A burnisher should therefore not be tempered in any way, in that tempering will soften the metal and reduce the burnishers effectiveness.
Step 5 – Clean up the faces and make a handle
Once the burnisher has cooled repeat steps 2 and 3 to clean up and finish graining the surface of the burnisher and prepare it for use. It is a good idea to also to make a handle – it makes the burnisher a lot easier to use. If you have a piece of copper or brass tubing you can use it to reinforce the end of the handle with the burnisher inserted into it.
The burnisher I made as I put this article together is shown in Figure 10.
