I am thinking of buying a decent set of scredrivers and am looking at the Bergeon range but am not sure whether to go for the antimagnetic version. Can anyone advisea complete novice

For the most basic of tools you should always go for the best.

Could not agree more. Inferior tools always cost more than the best tools do.

Tim,
Don't know if you got your screwdrivers, but to echo what Frank and Mike have said, buy the best - and Bergeon are up there.

The type with replaceable blades are good, as you can swap a broken tip quickly if in the middle of a job and don't want to break off to reprofile it.

I would also recommend you practice repairing some broken tips on a fine stone too, as you'll need to do that at some point - a badly shaped tip can and will ruin screws, plus slip out of a screw head across a plate ruining that too!

Best regards

John

A long time ago I had a friend who built show motor cycles. His favorite was a Harley 48 twin pan with a kuckle-head frame. He has a special set of wrenches that were lined with rawhide as not to scratch the hardware. I was thinking, does someone make nylon screwdriver tips (or some such material) that would prevent an accidental scratch of a movement?

Mark, The idea of a "soft tip" or smooth tip is a contradiction to the amount of pressure that is actually required to remove many of these movement screws. While it feels very slight, the actual forces in psi at the torqeing contact points are easily "Harley Davidsonish".

To help limit marking the movement, I "dress" my screwdriver tip ends with a light cross grain stoning so that it is less likely to "slide" from the screw head slot and skid across the movement plate.

My constant problem is no depth perception, working with one eye (loupe). Many times I "feel" my way to the screw head by "touching" safe spots near it and then moving in to the actual screw.

Thanks the sound advice guys and the tips, very much appreciated. I am now beginning to build up a workable toolkit, I find that the older tools are better made but then I just love decent tools. I don't involve Bobbie with the cost of these things, she wouldn't begin understand why you have just GOT to have these things!
I read somewhere someone else saying that horolgy starts out as a $200 hobby but pretty soon turns into a $10,000 hobby . Have to agree with that

Best regards to all

Dave: I am not sure what you mean by a cross graining stoning. Could you please elaborate? Thanks. Sounds interesting.

So what's the answer to the antimagnetic part?

and

Who makes THE BEST screwdrivers?

The "antimagnetic" type are generally low grade stainless, and not recommended for our work. There are some very very expensive ones, but a demagnetizer (which you will end up with anyway) will do just fine to "clean up" tools and (more important) watches. Mean while my "working" tweezers are a stubby "H" (?) type I derusted from the eBay tools, and reworked to an excellent "touch" tweezers which with lightly sanded inside jaws will positively pick up a fly's eyelash if so needed.

That is as opposed to my favorite #5 (another de-rusted eBay find) That I used for manipulating train wheels in final assembly and, from time to time to "help" a damaged balance (hair) spring

As for screwdrivers, I first bought some Bergeon whirly-gig mounted drivers, and then some more "old" sets from eBay which I converted into "backups" so I needent stop and resharpen during a project. Most important is to have a basic sharpener (at least) learn to use it to redress the tips, (I use my old Boy Scout Sharpening stone), and to buy good blades. Cas-Ker has some very nice blued steel replacement blades at very attractive prices.

To answer the question about my cross dressing the tip, if you look at some movement plates it looks like the last watchmaker was using a John Deere PLOW to screw them together! I cross dress the tips because it makes me feel better about thinking I will not slide the driver out of the screw slot so much and mark up the movement plates. As you must dress the tip a little anyway, the way I do it is shown by the motion arrows:

I have been quite pleased with Starrett screwdrivers which incorporate blades that can be replaced.

David,
I have that same set of Bergeon Screwdrives that you have in the rotating stand. In the last four years much of the chome plating has come off. I also think that the blades need daily dressing, and I don't use em as chisels. Bergeon has recently come out with a new "ergonomic" set of screwdrivers, but based on my experience with the Bergeons, I think I should of bought a Horotec set of screwdrivers. I have a number of Horotec tools and I am very impressed with the quality.

Scott, you are right, the Bergeon blades are much less durable. I use them in general and justify it (as I own them anyway) that I would rather break them than inscribe a screeching "yelp" across a watch plate. That said, I also have bought s number of blue steel tips for the drivers where I need to more "oomph" such as for Jewel Screws wich all to often are nasty little "tip busters".

Generally, I check and re-dress as needed all my working drivers between disassembly and reassembly to (again) reduce the "screeching" sound we all love so dearly when a tip skids across a plate.

I found this message referencing Cas-Ker for replacement bits for screwdrivers. I just bought some K & D screwdrivers on ebay with two missing bits, and was looking for some replacement bits when I found this message referencing Cas-Ker. That's the place I've been looking for! Thanks to David Abbe.
Any other favorite sites for Horological tools? Since I'm new at this, I have very few watchmaker tools. I need a caseholder, a loupe, and many other items.

Dave Turner