The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

That's true, but the colour of the oak looks too anemic to have been done in shellac.

kirtley2012 wrote:you did a fantastic job!! i hope we can see a video of it!
out of interest what did it cost for you to get that done to the horn?, what would a cygnet horn needing restoration cost and is it bad/wrong to drill the holes for a cygnet horn into a fireside case with no back bracket? or should i just get another case with a back bracket and put my mechanism into that? i would like a machine to put a cygnet horn onto one day!
Alex

It was $150 for the wood-graining plus postage. I think as long as the holes are drilled in the right place it
would be ok to do so. I am assuming Cygnet mounts were sold as an accessory upgrade back in the day.

gramophoneshane wrote:The horn looks great, but I have to ask, who did the cabinet & what did they use?
It looks like polyurethane & spoils the whole look of the machine.
I know a lot of people will say it's terribly rude of me to say, but I'm just being honest.

I assure you its not a poly coat on there. Its shellac although it did come out shinier than I hoped.
The old aqua paint was very tough to remove and as a result the original finish was eradicated. I added some
walnut Howards to darken the color a bit then shellac to protect the new decal and seal the finish. Should I
use some 0000 steel wool to soften the shine a bit?

Hi

When you refinished the cabinet, did you use a grain filler? The gloss looks to me like that is the off the brush finish of shellac, if grain filler was not used it will be hard to get a nice smooth finish with that nice shellac sheen.

Regards Marcel

I have worked on cases with shellac coating. If you didn't use a grain filler (such as pumice) after a first coating you can indeed still treat it with fine steel wool and put additional shellac coatings on top.

A grain filler speeds up the whole procedure but is not absolutely necessary. Clean the wood after the steel wool carefully with a towel and a brush, and don't apply more than three fine coatings within 24 hours. The grainy look will become smaller with each new coating. An old Fireside finish isn't perfectly smooth either.

And yes, when the final coating has dried for at least another 24 hours you can use steel wool again (very carefully) to get a more blunt finish. A liquid wax furniture polish applied over this should provide a very authentic look.

Hi

Yes thats right you can, but that is a lot of hard work.

Regards Marcel

The horn looks just amazing. Nice to know that service is out there.

Clay

saxymojo wrote:Yes thats right you can, but that is a lot of hard work.

Yep, such a case can easily take 1-2 weeks until it's done and you should have a dust-free place to let it dry.

Thank you for doing such a lovely job!! I am sure my grandmother would be happy to know it is still being enjoyed and in such a beautifully restored condition!

Thanks for the great advice on the finish guys! I will give the techniques a try when I have some time.
Here is a video as requested:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZZVn-BfW2U[/youtube]