Elgin Grade 316

Here are a couple photos taken before cleaning. There's a lot of machine oil in the setting mechanism. And it has seeped in all over the jewels too.

It takes some extra work to get rid of the machine oil, but these winding/setting parts cleaned up well in the end. The watch needs a replacement balance jewel too.

To clean up the balance pivot, a tiny amount of oil stone powder is mixed with an even smaller amount of fine oil to create a paste.

A piece of pegwood shaped with flat facets is charged with the paste and worked over the pivot using the lathe.

The pivot is refinished with specially shaped Arkansas stone, bell metal and steel, in stages depending on the need.

One of these photos shows a balance pivot jewel with the hole badly enlarged and uneven from wear. The other image is the replacement, having a nice even hole almost too small to make out.

The watch is a grade 316 Elgin, 18 size, 15 jewels, made about 1908.