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At “school” the staking of riveted staffs is highly discouraged. There are many ways to skin a cat and God knows that we’re always running into situations where we don’t have the specific tool to apply the optimal procedure and yet we end up sorting things out well. Even if the OP is beginning, it is important that he is aware of some of those basic procedures. His balance wheel may not be that valuable that he can experiment and learn even if it means that he will have to replace it... or he will be thankful to know that not everyone recommends staking it off, especially without any prior experience. He would then send it somewhere just to get staff off and move on with his repair. I would tone things here way down. This is a place for everyone to chime in even for those of us with less experience than others. I’m delighted to invest my time trying to sort things out with anyone open minded and appreciative. Won’t spend a second with anyone that rides a high horse and is there just pointing out how wrong we are. Cheers it’s Friday! [emoji482] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Certainly appreciate all the help on this, thanks. The Hamilton will be going in a drawer for safe keeping. Once I've got my confidence up I'll disassemble just to confirm with certainty that it's definitely a broken staff. In the longer term I'll be keeping an eye out for a good staking set, sounds like a handy tool anyway. Very much looking forward to eventually getting it cleaned and running again. At the moment it's in a bit of a state with a chip in the dial, grime etc, but I guess that's part of the fun.

in most lathe related trades, running a lathe is a 4 year aprentiship. vin

I'm not sure where you got your staff, but if you had to resize it, it was the wrong staff to begin with. I've used the K&D staff remover for years with absolutely zero problems. It may be preferable to turn off a rivet shoulder on a lathe, but... A: Not everyone has a watch lathe, especially a beginner as the OP stated he is, and B: Using a lathe to turn it off requires great skill, and much more damage can be done with a slip of a graver. Everyone has their own preferred method to do things, but stating there is only "one way" is a bit presumptuous.

This is the easiest tool to use for removing riveted staffs, and it keeps you from distorting the balance arms. As a beginner the OP likely doesn't have a watch lathe to turn the shoulder off with, and that's a much more advanced skill anyway.

What you're describing sounds like this. This is mainly used for clocks and is not suitable for pocket watches, the punches are much too large.

This is Elgin 18 from the late 19th century. I really like the watch, but it needs a lot - hands, balance staff, hairspring and crystal. Anyway, I just could not get the bezel to unscrew, impossible to get a grip. I found a video by tshackantiques on how to remove bezels (or backs) using a hot glue gun. I couldn't believe how well it worked! Run a bead of hot glue carefully around the bezel. The heat expands the bezel which helps. Stick the lid from an appropriately sized jar to the bezel. While the glue is still in a plastic state, it has a lot of holding power and the grip the lid gives makes it a piece of cake to unscrew the bezel. When cool, it does not stick to the metal and picks off very easily.

JDM - I called the red and white Pointer "hands" because I didn't know I could use the word "hand". Coloured red and white, 2 colours, I thought it might be plural :-) Thanks for the nod for buffing and polishing. Everyone has been so helpful with their advice. My friend is hopefully looking at the watches this weekend so I'll have some idea of the state of play when I see him, and can work out what to do with them. I'm refurbishing the original box inlay, having ordered some blue sticky back velour. I'm blowed if I can remember what the original strap was. I have a memory of a red and something coloured canvas strap for a watch, but not sure which one. I know I moved it on to a wide leather strap, with 2 fastenings to hold the watch in the middle of the strap, like a wide wristband, but given the box and inlay, that wasn't original. Don't think I had a metal strap, but a lot of photos show those with the watch. I'm really enjoying this, as I'd never thought to refurbish a watch till I looked through a tin of childhood memories and got to thinking about my watch and what could be done with it.