My research and discussions with other clock repairers has not come to a definite conclusion regarding the strange escapement in this clock, which you may recall runs for a while then simply stops, probably from lack of impulse. However, opinion is just on the side of the escape wheel being back-to-front, so as I had the clock apart I decided to reverse it on it’s collet. The easiest way to test the escapement was to reassemble the going train in the plates:

Immediately I added the weight (no pendulum yet) the escapement started to operate – always a good sign! But I didn’t want to try it for too long due to the state of the pivots and holes.

So back to the workshop, turn and polish the pivots and re-bush the plates for the going train only at this stage. Reassemble, onto the test stand, and away it went! You can see a short video on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM6te1_i0-8

Now I can clean the whole mechanism and repair the strike train parts.