The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

They were right. Leave the horn alone. Either keep it as is or sell it. Do not mess with it.

Look for a better horn, or buy a new repro.

That's my advice.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

NEFaurora wrote:They were right. Leave the horn alone. Either keep it as is or sell it. Do not mess with it.

Look for a better horn, or buy a new repro.

That's my advice.

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

I can't do any more harm to the horn because someone else has trashed it. They sanded off the original paint and painted it some kind of ugly gold color. All I'm doing is reprinting it a different color in this case a semi transparent red very close to the original type if paint used back then.

Victrolaboy wrote:The horn that I want to repaint was already sanded and repainted gold by some one else in the past. So far I have removed all the gold paint very carefully and I have put several coats of sandable primer paint. The paint I'm using is Dulicolor metal cast paint which is made to be sprayed on Crome so it has a semi transparent look just like the original paint. I'm doing a silver base coat to get the correct color and you can use this paint on non Crome surfaces if you do a silver base coat.

Now, if you are considering gold edging on the bell of the horn, as the photo suggests, you would do well to make some sort of template to ensure an even line.

Once you have the color coat on the horn, you can either (a) draw the outline of the border on each petal and fill them in by hand, or (b) lay painter's tape along the edge, carefully trace the outline of the template with an X-acto knife, peel off the excess tape, and paint the exposed area.

Bill

Normally, The part that is gold is raised. I just use a Gold Felt marker and follow the lines.

I find this thread very interesting and hope that once you work your way through to a successful end that you post photos of each step.

Yes I agree that many horns with chips and wear are worth keeping in original shape but we have all seen horns so badly damaged that crafters do not even want to use them for lamp shades. These are very worthy of restoration - go for it.

Bruce

I have determined that on some horns, at least, the flowers are decals or transfers. I copied flowers from many horns on eBay, isolated the background with Photoshop, and found way too many details to be exactly the same from flower to flower, stem to stem, leaf to leaf. Some of the decals seem to have been cut and pasted to make them appear to be "hand painted" but the similarities still continued.

With this in mind, I assembled a flower design from one attractive horn, fiddled with the colors on Photoshop to get them just right, and then printed them out on blank decal paper I bought on line. I applied this to a newly painted horn, oversprayed with shellac to dissolve the decal material, leaving only the flower transfer print, and the horn is absolutely effective.

By the way, I used the clear version of decal paper which will not transfer white since color printers do not print "white". I then overlayed the white portions of the flowers carefully cut from a printout on thin white paper.

John

John,
Let us see it?

welshfield wrote:I have determined that on some horns, at least, the flowers are decals or transfers. I copied flowers from many horns on eBay, isolated the background with Photoshop, and found way too many details to be exactly the same from flower to flower, stem to stem, leaf to leaf. Some of the decals seem to have been cut and pasted to make them appear to be "hand painted" but the similarities still continued.

With this in mind, I assembled a flower design from one attractive horn, fiddled with the colors on Photoshop to get them just right, and then printed them out on blank decal paper I bought on line. I applied this to a newly painted horn, oversprayed with shellac to dissolve the decal material, leaving only the flower transfer print, and the horn is absolutely effective.

By the way, I used the clear version of decal paper which will not transfer white since color printers do not print "white". I then overlayed the white portions of the flowers carefully cut from a printout on thin white paper.

John

John, I've been printing on decal paper for a while and have never even considered the possibility of a white overlay.
I considered a printer with a white ink cartridge once, but then the several thousand dollar price tag made my decision for me.

Can you provide a little more detail of how you accomplished the overlay?
It would be much appreciated and would help me finish a few non-phono projects I've
been working on.

I asked the Smiths once how they painted their horns. Of course they wouldn't tell me or anyone. But they had the secret on the flowered horns. They are nice, but I think they quit.

Vince:
I print the flowers on a thin white paper and then cut out the "white" portions and glue them over the missing white features of the decals that are now on the horn. With sprayed shellac it all blends together and no one is the wiser. In fact the slightly irregular edges look a lot like hand painting.
I will take a picture to post later today or tomorrow of my finished product.
John