What are these things?

Ron Spokovich

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The brass bristle brushes were on the benches of the old watch repair guys, but today they come in holders like those offered by the Eraser Company and a German outfit I can't remember. . .I have both. The brushes come in stainless, brass, and fibreglass with different coarseness. I have a bunch of drafting, stainless thin erasure templates, thin, and rectangular in shape. Most probably, Andrew Biggs is correct, as the watch is usually put in the movement holder with the stem vertically (pocketwatch) and a wristwatch with the stem at 3 o'clock. Then, such templates could use their notches for alignment with the screw, running horizontally, that runs through the movement holder. Eyeball alignment would be close enough to scribe your lines, with pencil, and being off a couple degrees would never show up in the finished job. Having some of this kind of stuff on hand, I would guess Andrew Biggs to be the closest to solving the mystery.
 

Sam

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My thoughts exactly, as I have some from my drafting days in school.

I don't think they're eraser shields because they're cupped and fit nicely over a curved pocket watch back. I'm the one who got them on ebay along with some other stuff, and they're in a small leather pouch with no instructions. The slots do look like shapes used in script lettering, but it's still a mystery.
 

Roger Bleile

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Sam,

I'm pretty sure they are lettering templates for pocket watch backs as indicated by Andrew. Below is a picture of a watch back where such a template was used to line up all of the different lines of lettering.
 

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Kevin Scott

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These are pictured in the Henry Paulson 1928 catalog on page 66. Says Watch cap stencils. A set of sizes for 0s to 18s. .50. (cost 50 cents). Shows a set of 6 that are a little different than Sam's.

Os watch cases are about 34mm. A ladies size. 18s is about 53mm. The corresponding stencil would be smaller.

The outside of pocket and wrist watch cases should be engraved with the stem at 12 o'clock. The inside cover or the inside of the caps should be engraved with the stem at 3 o'clock like Roger's beautiful picture above.

I think these are layout stencils used like Andrew and Roger already suggested.

I mentioned this catalog and another catalog in the thread where Sam bought the engraving handles. One of the handles was made by Bowman, for watch lathe work. The same Bowman that made engraving handles and gravers with the sliding lock.

The Winter's book in the Ebay lot is interesting. It shows a system for properly designing monograms. I never really tried to figure out the system, but for sure Sam will. Curious what Sam thinks of it. The booklet seams to have been originally printed around 1900, then reprinted until the 1950's.

The Art of Engraving book in the lot was written by Rees. Mine says 1904. It is my favorite book on lettering. Sam's original copy is a little hard to find, but the reprint, paper back, by Lindsay Publications (not Steve Lindsay) is easy to find new for about $20.00 and is very well printed and made.
 

Sam

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That's it Roger! I wasn't smart enough to figure out that it's for multi-line inscriptions. I kept looking at the cutout shapes and thinking they were the pieces of script lettering elements. Thanks for unraveling this mystery...now I know I have something exceptionally cool. At least to me it is :)
 

Sam

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It's really quite simple and I'm embarrassed that I didn't see how obvious it is! Here's a pic.

lettering_template.jpg
 

monk

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hey-- thanks to sam and roger ! i never knew of such a template system. fascinating to know the old guys before us had ways like that to speed things up.
 

Sam

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Hi Sam

My guess is that they are lettering layout templates. If you orientate the V slots to the side (9 and 3 o'clock) that's what they look like.

That way you don't have to draw top and bottom lines and can use standard layouts. Place them on the watch, then scribe the lettering in the slots. Or scribe the lines and then embellish with lettering if you need something fancy.

Perhaps they are so thin so they can conform to the watch a bit better and be used as concave or convex templates.

My guess is that they are home made.

Cheers
Andrew

That's what they are for certain, Andrew. They don't appear to be homemade though.

Since pocket watch engraving of this type is probably never or rarely done any more, these handy little things might end up long forgotten. I'm sure every engraver on the planet knew what they were a hundred years ago, but I can't name a single engraver alive today who has ever used them.
 

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