I'd like to hear the last word or at least a consensus about this:

Should one lightly oil every third tooth of the escape wheel or leave that wheel alone?

kh

As I recall, the Chicago (or Bulova) watchmaker's school suggests touching the faces of the pallet jewels with an oiling pin to create a tiny "meniscus" wetting of fine watch oil on those faces that slide during the impulse contact between the escape wheel "Feet" and the Pallet Jewels.

As the escape wheel feet are often machined to a thin edge, lubing the jewel faces would be a better choice.

The whole issue has been bandied about for years, some saying no oil at all should be put in there.

Personally, I VERY lightly wetted the jewel faces with oil because that is the only flat faced sliding friction in the movement.

Right. Oiling just the friction points seems obvious. I asked the question because just last night a long-time watchmaker friend told me that lubricating just the pallet stones wasn't enough, and that statement surprised me because I have only heard - or read - what you say.
So it is a subject of discussion you say, but it would seem that the weight of opinion weighs more heavily on the side of less is better.

Exactly, especially given todays high wetting watch oils with virtually non-existent vapor pressure. More than a "smidgeon" adds friction and instability.

I agree with your long-time watchmaker friend. If every third tooth is too much oil then go every fifth tooth. The oil should eventually work its way onto the area of contact on the teeth you miss if you apply the right amount. Ideally use a light amount of oil every third tooth but if the oil gets applied heavily go to the fifth tooth next.

RR

I'm in agreeance with David on this, thru my experience I find that the lubing of the face of the pallet jewels is quite sufficent. I also have read that you should not put oil there at all, in my opinion I strongly disagree with this. I have tried a little experiment were I assembled a watch with no oiling of the pallet jewel faces and then proceded to time the watch on my B100 timing machine, results did not look great. I then disassembled the escapement and lubed the pallet jewels very sparingly, the timing results looked much better.

Regards to All,
Bila

Below is part of page 10 from the British Horological Institute:

The Practical Lubrication of Clocks and Watches

I've been using Moebius 941 and follow the method Henry B. Fried describes on page 34-35 of his book The Watch Repairers Manual in which the pallet stones are oiled as well as the third to fifth escape wheel tooth. I've tried to apply oil to just the pallet stones and can't get enough applied to lube all the escape wheel teeth with the 941. The stones only hold so much oil before it starts making a mess.

RR

British Horological Institute:

The Practical Lubrication of Clocks and Watches Page 10