Making a replacement case for a Verner's Pattern Mk vii Compass

[17107BM]

Excellent thread.

Enjoyed following. True craftsmanship at it's best and it shows.

Gary.

[Djumpster]

Thank you very much! I've actually managed to finish the whole piece now, so I'll try to post some final pictures today or tomorrow.

👋

[Djumpster]

Alright, obviously that once again took longer than I'd hoped. Nevertheless, it's time to wrap this up! 

Here's the back face with the belt loop being stitched on. I don't have pictures of where I had to stitch through both the back face and the belt loop, but it was very tough!

 

Made it through though, as you can see here:

 

Here's the lid stitched on, and now we're REALLY almost done:  
(you can tell how challenging the middle bit with the belt loop was by all the marks left by the awl)

 

[17107BM]

Absolutely first class work!

Big thanks for taking us along with you on this. 

Gary.

[Djumpster]

Thanks Gary! It's been quite the experiment, but I believe I've found myself a new hobby If I get round to fixing up more Great War-era stuff, I'll be sure to let you guys know. 
Anyways here are the final pictures. 

What really puts the cherry on the cake in my view, is the little brass buckle. Luckily I found a solid brass one (expensive!) that was precisely the right size. Unfortunately it was all covered in lacquer to prevent it from tarnishing, so I soaked it in acetone for 24 hours to strip off the lacquer and make it look like something that could actually pass for antique...

 

And that..... was the final step! My Verners Pattern Mark vii finally has a new home 

 

Can't begin to express how incredibly educational this project has been and I'm just waiting for the next project to present itself! I'm confident I can take on even more complex things now, so when the next repair or reproduction job comes along, I'll make sure to keep you updated on my progress again. 
Thanks for all the encouragement!

 

 

Edited 25 June , 2023 by Djumpster

[Dave66]

Excellent, many thanks for sharing your results.

looking forward to future projects.

Dave.

[mancpal]

I’ve mentioned beforehand that this is quality craftsmanship.

May I suggest a WW1 saddle for a future project 😁.

Simon

[Peter Maxfield]

Wonderful work! Very glad to find this - so interesting. Imagine how many were made - now there's one more!

Have just had a message today with photos showing my grandfather's original Ed Koehn 1915 Verners Pattern VII - I've only ever known about his W.F. Stanley & Co., Pattern VI with R. Stafford 1917 case. Guessing he was separated from the original when he was wounded and out of it for 6 months at the end of March, 1916.

Well done!

And here's a shot of the 1915 case (from Tim Parsons) showing an original belt loop instead of shoulder strap.

 

Edited 3 October , 2023 by Peter Maxfield
Added 1915 belt loop photo.

[MikB]

Looks like a seriously good piece of work. 

Difficult subject, too. Congrats.

Edited 3 October , 2023 by MikB

[Nutting]

SUPERB!  Serious craftsmanship.  I have just bought a Mk.VII which is missing it’s case but I don’t think I could match your workmanship.  👍

[LNBright]

On 03/02/2023 at 09:50, Djumpster said:

I've recently come into possession of a beautiful 1915 Verner's Pattern Mk vii, by Ed Koehn in Geneva. 
It's needed some love to get it back in working order (don't worry, I took all the precautions - I'm aware of the radiation risk!), but now that I've put it back together, I'm absolutely over the moon with it

Hi,

Beautiful work!   
 

Question, if I may:  

I’ve just gotten a Verners Pattern VII myself (an Anglo-Swiss); I’m not yet to the case, that might come later.  You mentioned that you needed to get it into working order first. The one I’ve gotten is working, as far as the lock, damper, prism…. however, the glass on the lid is broke, and will need to be replaced. In your before pics, it appeared as though you didn’t have a lid glass:  did you replace the glass?  Any tips or suggestions for either making a replacement, or perhaps any leads on where one might be found? 
Any and all suggestions, comments, etc, are appreciated.

Regards, 

-L

[Djumpster]

On 03/10/2023 at 00:28, Peter Maxfield said:

Wonderful work! Very glad to find this - so interesting. Imagine how many were made - now there's one more!

Have just had a message today with photos showing my grandfather's original Ed Koehn 1915 Verners Pattern VII - I've only ever known about his W.F. Stanley & Co., Pattern VI with R. Stafford 1917 case. Guessing he was separated from the original when he was wounded and out of it for 6 months at the end of March, 1916.

Well done!

And here's a shot of the 1915 case (from Tim Parsons) showing an original belt loop instead of shoulder strap.

 

Thanks for sharing this picture. I think I've seen this model before, apparently there were several models. 
I've no idea if there was ever an 'official' model, whether they were issued with a case, or that they were all made to order? 

[Djumpster]

On 04/10/2023 at 23:34, Nutting said:

SUPERB!  Serious craftsmanship.  I have just bought a Mk.VII which is missing it’s case but I don’t think I could match your workmanship.  👍

It's mostly just a matter of having a lot of patience, and many, many hours of lying awake at night thinking about how to do the next section  Which is what I do with all of my projects. Being somewhat of a troubled sleeper certainly helps!

On 03/10/2023 at 08:08, MikB said:

Looks like a seriously good piece of work. 

Difficult subject, too. Congrats.

Thank you! 

[Djumpster]

On 22/10/2023 at 21:13, LNBright said:

Hi,

Beautiful work!   
 

Question, if I may:  

I’ve just gotten a Verners Pattern VII myself (an Anglo-Swiss); I’m not yet to the case, that might come later.  You mentioned that you needed to get it into working order first. The one I’ve gotten is working, as far as the lock, damper, prism…. however, the glass on the lid is broke, and will need to be replaced. In your before pics, it appeared as though you didn’t have a lid glass:  did you replace the glass?  Any tips or suggestions for either making a replacement, or perhaps any leads on where one might be found? 
Any and all suggestions, comments, etc, are appreciated.

Regards, 

-L

Mine actually still has the glass in it - it's just very hard to see because the sighting hair was missing. Getting it back into working order mostly meant rebalancing the card because it was tilted and wasn't spinning freely anymore. (I replaced the sighting hair with a hair I yanked out of an old broom)

I have no experience working with glass, but I think this is what I would do:
- take the glass out of an old photo frame (I think that should be roughly the right thickness)
- print out a template on some sticker paper
- stick that onto the glass
- cut it out with a dremel fitted with a diamond cutting disc.

...and all of that while wearing proper protective equipment, of course 

At any rate I'm sure YouTube is loaded with videos of similar projects so that would be my starting point. 

Would love to see some pictures should you decide to take it on!

Edited 23 October , 2023 by Djumpster

[charlie962]

On 23/10/2023 at 23:12, Djumpster said:

Would love to see some pictures should you decide to take it on!

Would be a useful addition to this excellent tread, but beware the standard already set!