This next shot should illustrate the fragility of this piece nicely!

The thickness of the escape cock in my example is 0.80mm by the pins, 0.62mm near the jewel, and 0.35mm in the machined recess!
For those of you working in 'old money' - imperial measures, the thinnest point on this escape cock is 14 thousandths of an inch!

You poke around with a screwdriver at the wrong end at your peril!

One final point about this part: if you buy a cylinder watch (Especially on eBay) that is being sold with a broken mainspring, Beware!

There are occasions when the recoil down the train from a fully wound spring 'letting go', will bend or break it.

The recoil will be stopped suddenly when the escape tooth hits either the inner or outer wall of the cylinder - and something usually gets busted or bent - or both!

The weakest part will break as a rule, and this is one of them - along with stripped train wheel teeth - and a bent cylinder - the 'giveaway' here is a balance rim that 'wobbles' as it rotates!!

John

Hello John, No I’ve not gone away, glad to see you back, I am still plodding on reading and studying, Will be watching and learning as you carry on with the thread
I have been stripping some old bangers down, did not get any response over the Howard watch I put on all I know it’s 1910 ,picked up a no12 Elgin 1923, both are keeping excellent time, glad to see your health is picking up, Cheers for now Regards Les

Thank you Les, good to hear you're still keeping tabs.
Keep on reading too, keeps the brain alive

You could try posting the Howard photo's in the Pocket watch forum and see if you get some response there!
Nice watches BTW!

Best regards

John