Edison Recorder - Good or Bad Stylus??

[CDBPDX]

I just found an Edison recorder that seems to be complete but I don't know what a good cutting stylus is supposed to look like. Attached is a picture of the stylus. Is that the way it is supposed to look? Having never seen one before, I just assumed it would be a metal cutting stylus, but I could be wrong.

Thanks! Cliff

[rgordon939]

Looks like a good cupped stylus to me.

Rich Gordon

[CDBPDX]

Looks like a good cupped stylus to me.

Rich Gordon

Great! Thanks! Always happy to get good news!

Next question - is it a 2 minute or 4 minute recorder?

[rgordon939]

Two minute recorder.

Rich Gordon

[Chuck]

I will second that it's a 2 minute cutting stylus.

Looks good in the photo but in order to really
know, it must be looked at under high magnification
in order to see clearly the sharpness of the cutting
edge.

These cutters do get dulled and chipped. The duller
and the more chipped they are, the worse the recording
sounds. A recorder cutter that looks perfectly fine
at the approximate magnification of this picture can
have lots of tiny chips and wear at the cutting edge.

The only way to know for sure how good it is, is
to test it by making a recording on a good blank.

These cutters are made from a .040 inch diameter
sapphire rod that has the beveled edge cut and polished.
There is also a hole in the center that provides a
relief at the inside diameter of the polished slanted
edge. This relief hole can be either a straight or
a tapered hole. The straight hole cutters work
and sound a bit different than the cutters that have
the tapered hole.

My guess is that the pictured cutter is probably
ok, but much closer inspection and testing will be
needed before the true condition of it can be confirmed.

[CDBPDX]

I have several Ediphone and Dictaphone cylinders freshly shaved. They should be good material to experiment with recording. Have to cut them down to 6" first. This is going to be fun!

[PeterF]

Does anyone have a good closeup photo of a 4M recorder cutting stylus, so we can see the difference? I'd imagine they are much more rare than 2M units.

[Chuck]

Peter,

Yes the 4 minute cutting stylus does look quite
a bit different than the 2 minute one.
The 4M kind look a bit like a 4M playback stylus
that has had a wide notch cut out of the tiny
doorknob on the end. And, yes they are rarer than
the 2M variety. Edison's whole 4M recording outfit
was not nearly as robust as the much older and well-
proven 2M recording and playback format. The 4M
recording blanks are made of a hard and abrasive
compound that severely wears the dainty little 4M
recorder cutters. In addition to that, the 4M home
recordings cannot be played many times before
starting to sound harsh and low in level.

Cliff,

A handy trick for cutting down the Ediphone or
Dictaphone blanks to the length of an Edison
phonograph cylinder is to use a heavy darning needle
as a cutting tool. Wrap some thin cardboard around
the shaver mandrel to protect it from being scratched
by the needle.

Then, when you start the cut, increase the width
of the needle-cut by gently swinging the needle
back and forth. This widens the cut so that the
wax being removed has a better path to come out.

I usually cut them off to 4.5 inch length.

Then shave down (many shaves) to get down to
a diameter of 2.196 inches.

N.O.S. Ediphone blanks are usually about 2.384 inches
in diameter. It's a long way from 2.384 down to 2.196.

Use a calipers to measure the diameter of the cylinder
as it is being shaved and used.

You will see when you check the clearance
to Edison recorder and reproducer that 2.196 inch
diameter is about the largest that can be used.
Much more will jam them.

Have fun, go slow, and be careful. It works fine.

[Teak]

A 4 minute recorder stylus is indeed tiny. I just made some pictures with my microscope with 80x magnification. Mine needs to be turned, sadly.

[PeterF]

Thanks for the 4M stylus pix. I recently turned up a small stash of unused 4M Edison blanks, black in color. Does anyone know how different they are from the conventional 2M brown wax Edison blanks?

Also, where do Ediphone and Dictaphone cutters fit, dimensionally? I have a few of those and would love to try a 4M recording on an entertainment phonograph, if that makes sense. The Ediphone blanks are black not brown, but who knows if there's any correlation.

Years ago I did make some recordings on Ediphone cylinders, on an entertainment phono. I had a few that had been well used and thus already had been shaved down to the smaller OD needed to clear the carriage. I also trimmed one in length for use on a machine with an end-gate...with a hacksaw! Worked fine but ugly.