Pendulum restoration

More fun in the shop. I've done work for these folks for a long time. I found a crack in the bottom of their perfectly serviceable wooden pendulum rod and thought I'd add some value to the quoted work. I'm not really big on wood work. It's not like metal at all. Metal usually behaves predictably. My experiences with wood are less.

I brought in a blank from eastern Canada that was far too large, but was very happy when I unpacked it and saw what I had. The wood was obviously old, dry and hard. Lovely. I felt like there was a good chance to make a good job of this.

I cut it to width and thickness with an old wooden (German) hand plane and then shaped it into a lens profile by hand with a rasp. Several grits of sand paper got it all down to a very fine surface finish I thought. It's not pictured here, but it was stained then waxed with a lot of elbow grease. Some days I love my job. Especially when it secures a classic fifteen minute all day job like this.