From what I've learned recently is that copper, zinc, tin, lead and other elements is what goes into brass/bronze. When buying there's an ASTM number that you go by to get the right formulation for the properties of what you need. There's a lot of different formulations out there. All of it is double in price from what it was a year ago.
There is Ebay...but most on there want too much for what they are selling. Brass/Bronze is commodity priced anymore...like gasoline. Just about everyone makes it. Most that do specialize in particular forms or recipes of it. Plus with all the home remodeling the demand for brass/bronze has gone through the roof. It's used extensively in plumbing fixtures, wiring, and decorations. (Nobody uses pure copper...everyone uses "red brass").
And yes, the Swiss have a thing for horology....from clocks to watches they have it down pat. You have to apprentice under a master before you get accepted.
But $40,000-$20,000 for a "dust collector" is good money. About a quarter of that is the cost of the brass used. The cost of cutting and polishing is not reflected.
Ticking clocks aren't exactly popular because of the noise and are expensive as well. There really is not much of a market for the old technology. The art is dying for quartz/digital accuracy. We used to have clocks everywhere...the bank, churches, city centers...clock towers are now of a bygone era. If there happens to be a clock tower chiming in a city center people look at their cell phones and wonder why the chiming is off and early. *sigh* (it's supposed to be)
Owning a grandfather clock was once a sign of wealth.
Today they are abandoned or forced upon adult children as a family heirloom of some sort....(Which never goes over well)
