The Ancestral Loupe

My father bought my grand mother a table mounted loupe so that she could read her bills and such. When he gave it to her and while on the subject she told the story of her fathers loupe. When she was a young lady my grand mother had a loupe and her father having reached the age where a loupe was a necessity also had one. My great grand father found out that my grand mother's loupe was more powerful than his own and so proposed to exchange loupes with my grand mother. This they did. It transpired from the conversation that my grand mother still had her fathers loupe only that it was broken and missing some pieces. She pulled out of her drawer a carefully wrapped package and pulling aside a few layers of tissue we looked upon a lense. All that was left of my great grand fathers loupe. It was entrusted to me to see what I could do for it. I measured it and started scouring the shops for a body that could hold the lense but to no avail. I turned to e-bay and soon found that the measurements matched a loupe made by Parker in years past that was now a collectors item. After a few weeks of looking I found an ad for a Parker loupe that had lost it's lense and for that reason the seller was asking only 1.99$. Who wants a lenseless loupe anyway! Bought that and it was only a matter of making a new handle because 1) I can and 2) the old one was scratched and didn't look very good. What you see is the end product. A Parker frame and fittings, an ash wood handle and my great grand fathers lense. My grand mother really liked it and I hope she wasn't just humoring me because in all the point was to make her something she'd like.

The picture up top is the handle mounted on the lathe just prior to varnishing.