Laco Baumuster B Blued Hands: Who's in, who isn't ?

[Biggie_Robs]

Agreed. If the black hands on the watch had the original shape I'd be more than happy.

My feelings exactly.

[Janne]

So you are OK with the chemically blued hands, as long as the shape is authentic?
Personally I am!

Just a note to Piccollo8: Both the processes of Heat blueing and Chemical blueing are to increase the Rust-resistance.
Of old, guns were heat blued, untill the Chemical process was discovered.
Today, the chemical blueing process is used on the vast majority of non-s/s, civilian guns, !

[hwilsdorf]

Sorry to sound like a cheapskate (yes I am) , whats the price difference between blued and chemical blued hands? Thanks Janne!

So you are OK with the chemically blued hands, as long as the shape is authentic?
Personally I am!

Just a note to Piccollo8: Both the processes of Heat blueing and Chemical blueing are to increase the Rust-resistance.
Of old, guns were heat blued, untill the Chemical process was discovered.
Today, the chemical blueing process is used on the vast majority of non-s/s, civilian guns, !

[Nalu]

Several points:

1. Laco has not specified whether the Swiss company making the blued hands is doing it by heat or by chemical bluing.

2. The choice, and therefore the cost difference, is between PAINTED blue hands and BLUED hands (as in chemical or heat-blued).

3. German production is known for efficiency AND attention to detail (QUALITY). The early war years were very demonstrative of this, with the quality of kit being markedly better than that of their opponents (optics, metallurgy, etc.). To the point where the QUALITY choices got them into trouble on the battlefield as there were no 'kludges' or part-swapping possibilities. For example, there were almost no parts in common between the PzKw IV, PzKw V, PzKw VIa and PzKwVIb. In the later years (after the losses of 6th Army in Stalingrad and the DAK), shortcuts were taken due to effects of shortages in material and money. This was long after the B-uhren were specified and produced from what I can tell (I see deliveries in 39-42 in Knirim's book, but I don't read German - maybe Crusader can help). As a fan of military history, I could go on and on but I wanted to make the point that there are some gross misunderstandings being posited as facts here.

4. Janne, your assumption that the folks we haven't heard from about blued hands is completely unsupported. It reminds me of the surgeon who thinks all of his patients are doing fantastic because they never come back for follow-up. If they don't speak up, we have no way of knowing what they think and any assumptions are misleading.

[Janne]

Nalu! Yes, I assume we have not heard from them because they are not interested because of the increasing cost.

I do not think the difference chemically blued or heatblued is a quality difference!
The endresult, resistance to oxidation, is virtually the same.
One process is old, the other one newer?

[brainless]

I will join majority - important is the original "belgian" shape, designed by Frank


Volker

[inlanding]

The value of having Frank_be's designed replacement steel blued hands exceeds its price for such a unique watch, so it is worth it to me to have them. If the watch were 100EUR more expensive at the onset, I'd still have purchased the watch just the same.

If it's determined too many people don't think it's worth it for such a unique timepiece, I'll go for the chemically treated ones.

Glen

[Janne]

Just a thought:
Looking on Laco's production, all the watches with "Baumuster B" looking dials have the "Baum. A" hands.
The problem we have (cost) is due to the limited amount of hands produced. Wonder if Laco would be interested in putting the " belgian B-hands" into normal production?
If they change the shape to the B-shape, but have them black painted, it is not a problem for us to get a small number blued.
(The size of the "belgian B" will fit size wise the "ordinary" Laco dials.)
This would benefit all of us, including Laco!

[hotnerd]

Gents,

We have a green light from Laco for the painted blue hands with our (Frank_be) design.

I am working out the details as Frank_be has to still provide the vector file of hands to Laco. I will email and post the ordering process in next couple of days to Baumuster B members.

Cheers,
Bhanu

[Janne]

Gents,

We have a green light from Laco for the painted blue hands with our (Frank_be) design.

I am working out the details as Frank_be has to still provide the vector file of hands to Laco. I will email and post the ordering process in next couple of days to Baumuster B members.

Cheers,
Bhanu

Bhanu, you are a star!