The first custom dial that I made for my 6155 rescue project turned out exactly as I had envisioned it but, unfortunately, sometimes things look better in my mind than they do in reality. The texturing of the background just seemed to be a bit too understated. In other words: boring. My favorite Grand Seiko dial has always been the Mt. Iwate, so I decided to try and replicate that look. I disassembled the first dial so that I could reuse the hour markers, date window and logos that I'd previously made, then got to work on the new dial base. It was made in exactly the same manner as the previous one, except for the application of the radial feathering. The feathering was done with a 90 degree carbide bur, mounted in a Foredom handpiece that was mounted in the lathe's milling attachment. The milling attachment was set at 45 degrees from horizontal and, starting from the center and using the power cross-feed, the pattern was cut as the dial rotated in the headstock. I had experimented with a number of scrap pieces in order to find the combination of spindle RPM and cross-feed rate that would achieve the look that I was after. Once that was done, the slots for the hour markers were machined, the minute markings engraved and the date window aperture were done exactly as done previously. Prior to plating, I brushed the dial with a slurry of rottenstone, using a short-bristled "stippling" brush, in order to very slightly matte the surface. This would make the silver plating a bit more white than silver. After plating, all was reassembled. I'm much happier with the result.
The finished dial
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