The Guss is great for Military purism, but that croc is my favourite colour, it looks good on the watch, and is more suited to wear with jeans and workshirt, or even your best Gaultier suit.
You did some great sympatico work on the hands so wear it with pride, someone once did seventy years ago.
Bob.
Absolutely fabulous.
A keeper, if ever there was one, and a special history too. Great job on the hands, she looks great.
Now, I'm gonna put on my serious face.
This is for anyone thinking of re-luming old Radium hands.
The half life of Radium is 1601 years. The Zinc Sulfide degrades and the glow fades to nothing. What is left is a non-glowing lume that is just as hot as the day they put it on, for all intents and purposes. The metal in the hands and the dial will remain radioactive. Flaking the lume off will contaminate the tools, bench, mat, and anything it comes in contact with. If you accidentally ingest the Radium, it can get nasty. The body sees Radium as Calcium, and imports it into bones, where it stays til you die. My Grandfather had Radium poisoning from the Second World War. As a watchmaker, they employed him to repair the instruments on the shot-up planes. This would include re-luming the dials and hands, and some other markings on the panels.
Now, the hazards of Radium were well known by this time, but war is war, and everybody got on with it. The upshot is that my Grandfather had a terrible case of Radium poisoning, and his bones ached like a toothache for the rest of his life.
Radium was used on watch dials and hands into the early 1960's and on clocks until 1978. Comparatively speaking, there is a much larger quantity of Radium paint on clock dials, and the emssions are actually surprising. Most often you will find this on bedroom electric clocks, and clock radios. I used chunks of the paint from my Mother's clock to do cloud chamber demonstrations in Physics class.
I no longer do any kind of Radium resto or work on flaking Radium dials. My exposure, as you might imagine, would be much higher given the volume of watches.
Anyway, as long as you don't eat the stuff and are reasonably careful, the risks are small, but keep in mind the nature of the toxicity.
The Man.
The ship.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/15/151087.htm
This is not the exact ship, but a similar type.
In reply to Great sluthing on the obit by William Smith