K&H Watchmaking Competence Centre: The week before Christmas Holidays

Thursday, December 15, 2016

The week before Christmas Holidays

Experimental sandblasted snailed blue ratchet wheel

Sandblased blue center with snailed outer rim

Sunray center with snailed outer rim

The students continued with their finishing exercises this week. Many students experimented with different styles of finishing such as chamfering, black polishing, beveling (internal corner), frosting, sandblasting, straight graining, sun-ray, circluar graining, snailing, blueing and mixtures of these finishing techniques. The students really had a lot of fun with these exercises although it took them many hours to finish to their satisfaction. We will let the pictures do the talking.

Before

After

beveled and chamfered then polished

Completely redecorated bridge with bevels made with internal corners

Black polish screw exercise (Big boss included)

The process from start to finish of making the bevels and circular graining a setting lever

A close up of the frosted finish

The piece of the left sandblasted by Shuai compared with the original sandblasted ratchet wheel on the right

Before the holidays, the school took the students out to visit the Caillers chocolate factory in Broc. It is a nice change from the watchmaking side of Switzerland. The students learned a little about the history behind Swiss chocolate making and even learned a bit about how to be chocolate tasters. At the end of the visit, they were able to do some shopping to bring gifts home, where ever that may be, to their family and friends. After the chocolate factory, they travelled to the neighboring city, Gruyere, where they are famous for their cheeses. They had fondue for lunch and visited the Chateau Gruyere to end the day. It was a beautiful castle from the 1500s, and just for a bit, the students felt they travelled back in time.