The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi can anyone tell me the going price of an Edison electric dictaphone shaver? I've seen one for sale that needs some restoration work, what do you think is a fair price? Thanks Gordon.

$50.00-200.00 is a fair ballpark, especially if the cutter is good. If you are doing a lot of recording, they are a real time saver, it takes about a minute to shave a cylinder and they come out with no surface noise, at least the blanks I make. I just got a new finishing shaver, and it made all the worlds difference, the surface is like glass and almost LP quiet. The Ediphone shavers from the late 1920's-1950's do a exceedingly great job. When I make blanks I have an edger machine, and an Ediphone shaver with two different heads to shave cylinders, a rough cut, and a fine cut shaving head. The rough cut one shaves my blanks down near the size I need, and the fine sapphire shaves them to a mirror finish.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine tipped
me off to a shaver on Craigslist.

I drove down to West Palm beach (200 miles) to
pick it up. It cost me $30. It came with 24
Ediphone blanks, half of which were NOS still
in their wax paper wrapping.

It turned out to be a Dictaphone "Cameo" model,
which looks to me to be a very late model type
from the late 1940s or possibly even the 1950s.

It needed lots of TLC, having been worked hard
in the greater N.Y.C. steno pool business.
Every last screw head was buggared and needed
filing clean. The heavy mechanical parts were
still all undamaged and true though.

So...it all depends. $50 to $200 is not
unreasonable. My other shaver, a Dictaphone
model from 1924 cost me $75 at an office supply
store in 1978. That was big money then, but
it was basically new never (well never hardly ever) used.

Chuck

Hi Guy's thanks for the info, the one I'm looking at is £100 and the guy can't tell me if it's working because there's no electric cable on it. From what I can see the top looks ok, but I've got to pay a courier £35 to collect it. Anyway thanks again for your help, Gordon.

I agree with everyone. I have seen them sell for as little as $25.00, and up to $1700.00 depending on make, model and condition. I shave my cylinders on my 1905 Edison Shaver. It is in great shape and does an outstanding job. The cylinders come out looking like glass. It has a great original sapphire. Here is a link on YouTube showings it shave a brown wax cylinder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxxkFY-yJys


Also attached picture of shaver.

Rich Gordon

Thanks Rich, thats a great looking machine,the one I'm looking at is an office model not pretty but as long as it does the job thats fine. Gordon

Rich, that is one beautiful shaver!
Thank you so much for posting the pic.

Chuck

When you make cylinders a good shaver is the difference between failure and success. I more like the Edison ones, though I think they are of the highest order and ease of use. The 1905 machine is a really nice one.

I've gotten decent results with the shaver on my Edison Home - BUT - It takes a long time and makes a tremendous mess.

I agree, I think the Esison machines do the best job. I also have an Edison Business Machine that does a good job shaving both 4 inch and 6 inch cylinders. I found a few 6 inch brown wax blanks and this machine did them great. Picture of Business machine attached. I have the original horn for it but it isn't on it in this picture.

Rich