They can be hardened without taking off the brass ears or crutch wires, if you are careful in heating them; but the roughness on the faces caused by the teeth must be taken out in finishing.

They must be polished nicely, and the polish lines should run parallel with the verge: this may not seem to some necessary, but if the polished lines run crosswise you can hear it rub distinctly and it would cause it to stop.
It is very common to hear a clock make a creaking noise, and this leads inexperienced persons to think it has become dry inside.

This is not so, and you will always find it to be caused by the loop of the crutch wire where it touches the rod; apply a little oil and it will cure it.
Some think that a clock must be cleaned and oiled often, but if the foregoing directions are carefully pursued it is not necessary.

I could show the reader several thirty-four hour brass clocks of my first and second years' manufacture (about twenty-two years since) which have been taken apart and cleaned but once--perhaps some of them twice.

I have been told that they run as well as they did the first year.