For Sale: Berliner Zinc Plates - Inquire
Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 10:35 pm
After significant research and experimentation, I've rediscovered the original Berliner zinc plate process. I'll be making a limited number of 7" plates, made using the chemistry prescribed by Emile. These are made with a custom, 1894 style logo and handwritten text below the spindle hole. These discs are museum quality and the details are correct, even under a microscope. These are electrically recorded, so I can make them from MP3 or similar.
Each one is handmade from zinc sheet which is cut on a machinists lathe, polished and flattened on a hydraulic press. The polished disc is then coated in a beeswax extract and "burnished" with the recording stylus to expose the zinc underneath the wax. Immediately after recording the plate is submerged in an acid solution which creates the groove in the zinc plate.
There is a very small number of surviving zinc plates, virtually all of them are locked away in the collections of large institutions, the rest of us will never see an original zinc plate. These modern made plates are not reproductions, they're newly made zinc plates using the same process. These can also have a patina added or you can watch them quickly turn darker and darker, except for the etched areas which will stay gold until polished or being played.
Because they are so accurately made, the year of manufacture will be deeply pressed into the back of the plate, other security measures will also be incorporated.
Each one is handmade from zinc sheet which is cut on a machinists lathe, polished and flattened on a hydraulic press. The polished disc is then coated in a beeswax extract and "burnished" with the recording stylus to expose the zinc underneath the wax. Immediately after recording the plate is submerged in an acid solution which creates the groove in the zinc plate.
There is a very small number of surviving zinc plates, virtually all of them are locked away in the collections of large institutions, the rest of us will never see an original zinc plate. These modern made plates are not reproductions, they're newly made zinc plates using the same process. These can also have a patina added or you can watch them quickly turn darker and darker, except for the etched areas which will stay gold until polished or being played.
Because they are so accurately made, the year of manufacture will be deeply pressed into the back of the plate, other security measures will also be incorporated.