If no abrasion is present I'd personally favor braided synthetic cord, because it's limp enough to not 'bird's nest' when not under tension.
And those gut cables had to go, so they figured out how to make flexible cables from shiny brass. The pendulum bob couldn't be dull lead or iron any longer, either. That's when they substituted shiny brass-enclosed lead weights for the cast-iron sash weights they'd been using.
My guess is that cable-brass cable at that-came into use when windows were introduced into long-case cases. The usual culprit was mice gnawing on the natural gut.Ī lot of this is cosmetic, for there's a furniture store involved in the life of most clocks. Even then I use it with caution as it can well damage the much softer brass drums and pullies and the like.Īnd even though wire rope was invented long ago, it was slow to find its way into clock work I think.Īn old English clock book my father had says that old long-case clocks _did_ have bottoms, but they were typically destroyed by weights dropping thereupon. 35 pounds or more on musical clocks and or small tower clocks. I also have steel cable but the only place I will use it is on some very heavy weights, i.e. So far the green has tested to more than 25 pounds static strength, but it has stretched a bit more than I like.
In this 2nd photo, we have the old green line I intend to test a bit more, followed by the modern and fairly cheap gut, then conventional brass clock cable, and finally off white nylon. We also have a lot of Morbiers that have used silk cords for centuries, but I have no first hand knowledge of how long they last. That it lived this long with 12-pound weights suggests I could be wrong with my thoughts on organic cords versus gut. I have samples of some very old organic (fabric) cordage from an eight-clock I plan to test further. It tends to wear too quickly and will fail where gut does not. Testing done by myself and others suggest that linen or hemp is not as reliable for most 8 day clocks. Grooved drums exist for good cause and I suggest it has little to nothing to do with what material was used for cordage, be it brass, steel, nylon, hemp, or gut. And when gut turns green I think its time to change it out in any event.Īnd smooth drums are usually more of a sign of a rural maker, or American made clock than those with grooves. I like synthetic brown nylon on plain vanilla domestic stuff. I on occasion still use gut as brass or nylon or other synthetics looks just wrong on some clocks. When I got it, there was a bit of fraying but it still held a 12# weight ok, but I was quick to replace it. I have a clock whose repair dates suggest the gut lasted nearly 100 years but it did not run for some of that time, how much slack time I don't know. IMO gut when properly installed, no sharp edges on the drum, weight bottoming out well before it hangs only on the knot, no mice in the environment knawing on the gut, good quality gut properly treated when new, and in an environment that is neither too moist nor too dry, will last a long time. Cable, brass or steel as used in clocks is pretty much a 20th-century application.