Sundials - Frequently Asked Questions

Will my Sundial rust or corrode?
No. Your sundial is made from solid brass, including all its fixings, even the ones you cannot see! It will age and darken with attractive brass coloured tones of brown and green depending on the environment where you live. Lacquered finishes will break down after a few years but can be reapplied after stripping and repolishing.
In short, your sundial will be around for generations.

Does my Sundial need any looking after?
No. The metal will tone and discolour naturally and this has no ill effect on the ‘structure’ of your dial.

What will happen to the Finish?
An untreated satin finish will gradually darken and weather to a dull brass colour with markings of brown and green depending on your local environment. You can apply wax polish to maintain the bright finish and this must be done at least monthly to have any effect. Even with such attention it is inevitable that your dial will darken. If you wish to maintain a bright finish your dial should be clear lacquered. This finish just needs a wash down with soapy water. It will eventually break down depending on the local environment and weather conditions; anything from 2 to 10 years.

Where is my Sundial made?
Your sundial is made by Kent Sundials in England. We don’t buy in Sundials from anywhere, including China!
Every Sundial has a date of manufacture and a unique ‘Kent sundials’ makers reference number.

What is a Satin Finish
This is a fine brushed finish with a directional grain and the standard finish on all my sundials. When new it will be bright but will darken as it ages. The finish can be restored by careful abrasion with the correct grade of ‘scotchbrite’ pad.

What is a Bronze Finish
The bronze finish is applied to the satin brass using a traditional bronze toning powder. The darkness of the bronze finish depends on the strength of the powder solution and how many applications are worked into the material. A beeswax based polish can be applied to keep a degree of lustre on the finish.
The formidable bronze entrances found all around the city of London were originally coloured using this process.

What is a Clear Lacquered Finish
A clear lacquered finish will maintain the original brightness of the satin finish. The effect of sunlight will slightly darken over time but a good degree of the original brightness will remain until the lacquer itself begins to crack and break up; anything from 3 to 15 years depending on local weather and environment.

Can you supply a plinth or pedestal for my Sundial?
No. I don’t sell plinths. You can buy these at your local garden centre or find many suppliers on the internet. Get the manufactures advice on how to securely fix your pedestal. See my details on how to secure your sundial.
Don’t forget, you could possibly fit an Armillary sphere on a garden wall or similar boundary. Base plates can be adapted for this purpose.

For pedestals try: www.torstone.com

What is an Armillary Sphere?
Ancient astronomers used celestial globes to show the constellations, their stars and the imaginary circles of the heavens. The globes were often made as skeletons using many rings and sometimes extremely complicated. Most though used just a few rings and in this form they became used as a very attractive type of sundial. The word armillary comes from the Latin armilla, a bracelet or ring; hence, Armillary Sphere.

Will my Sundial be Accurate?
Your Sundial will accurately show local time when it is correctly installed. The earths own less than perfect orbit of the sun will mean the dial could be running up to 15 minutes fast or slow on certain days and every Sundial, no matter how accurate, has to account for this (The Equation of Time).

Can I see the Gnomon shadow at all hours marked on the face of the sundial?
Yes on wall dials but on Armillary spheres or other spherical designs the rings may partially obscure the Gnomon shadow on particular days or times in the year. This is the price you pay for the attractive rings.

What is the Gnomon?
This is the pin or plate that throws the shadow by which the time is indicated.

British Summer Time Setting
My sundials are normally made to show the hours at British Summertime as they are more likely to be observed in the summer months. Therefore when it is noon the sundial will show 1pm and not 12 midday. On an armillary sphere the shadow at the bottom most part of the hour ring, normally noon at GMT, will show 1pm. If you wish, you can of course have hours showing GMT.

Noon Setting , what does this mean?
Your sundial will show Noon (midday) when the sun is directly over head. If you live in London, Cambridge or Brighton you are very close to the Greenwich meridian so your sundial will show noon when the local clocks show noon. If however you live in Cornwall or West Wales, the sun takes another 20 minutes or so to be directly over you; therefore when a Cornish sundial shows noon it will actually be about 20 minutes past noon at standard UK time; i.e GMT. Someone with a Sundial in Margate would record noon about 5 minutes before Greenwich mean time as they live a few degrees east of the Greenwich meridian.

What does Latitude mean?
If you draw a straight line from the North pole down to the South pole, where you live on that line is your latitude. At the equator this is 0 degrees. In central England this is about 52 degrees north. All sundials must be made to match the latitude they are to be used at.

What Latitude will my Sundial work at?
Each Sundial is made to suit the latitude where it will be used*. ( *only the small armillary Sphere dial is made to a standard latitude of 52 degrees north)

What is “The Equation of time”
Even a perfectly set sundial will only agree with a clock 4 times in a year because for most of the year the Sun is running slightly fast or slow because the earth ‘wobbles’ slightly in its orbit as it moves around the sun. Tables showing the Equation of time, the number of minutes you need to add or subtract for every day of the year, are widely available in books or on the internet.