The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have cleaned the case of my Victor IV with Murphy's Oil soap followed by an application of lemon oil. oh did it look great with the lemon oil but you have to buff it and then the alligatored finish is coming back... so what's the best way to smooth an alligatored finish?
is there a product that will "fill" the grooves or should I "cut" the high spots with #0000 steel wool?

here's a picture of the worst part (the large groove on the base).
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-qzRX ... G_1674.jpg

thank you very much for any help.

In my opinion......you should leave the finish alone. Mucking with an original finish like this can be a very slippery slope. A lot of collectors want to see this on a machine that is 100+ years old. Removing old wax/grime is just fine to do.

yeah, well... leaving it alone is the safest thing to do with just a clean 1-2 times a year.

Le0 wrote:yeah, well... leaving it alone is the safest thing to do with just a clean 1-2 times a year.

I have always found using "Fantastic" applied to paper towel (not directly on the machine) to work great. It is strong enough to remove all the wax & dirt and not the finish. You will start to see the towel becoming cleaner as you go along.

Before anything I will remove things like the brake, etc... Then I can clean freely with the grain.
After, a nice natural color paste wax (I use Minwax) and your done.
There are many other cleaners you can use and I'm sure other members will offer up some of them.
This is just what I have always use and never had a problem. Hope this helps and best of luck...

That effect on the finish is perfectly normal and very acceptable to me. I would leave it well alone. If you're not careful and you're VERY lucky, you'll end up with something looking reproduction. If you're unlucky, it'll be worse!

OK...I don't recommend this on a very rare collectable machine , but I have used this method successfuly...It's a very lengthy process that must be done in a well ventilated room , or outdoors...it involves methyl hydrate and a spray bottle...On the flat surfaces only , not the front back or sides , spray the surface with a generous amount of methyl and let it evaporate...Don't touch it , just spray and leave it alone...To do the side front , back the machine must be laid on its side..You don't want the spray to run off of the cabinet..You just want to spray enough to wet the surface...The methyl hydrate will soften the finish and after 5-10 cycles of spray and evaporation the alligatored finish will have flowed into a smooth surface...Breathing masks of the highest filtering should be used , and methyl hydrate is VERY flamable so keep open flames away....This method does work and I have returned heavily alligatored to mirror smooth without removing the finish....Be careful when spraying the lid that you don't let it dry in the closed possition...when the softend surface hardens the lid will be cemented in place

Use of GoJo hand cleaner can soften the finish slightly and it is possible to smooth out aligatoring a little. I know this because I left the lid of my GoJo container sitting on the aligatored shelf of mt Princess Grafonola. When I removed it the next day it left a shiny ring. I've heard that you can apply it with very fine steel wool and I've done that on a machine with modest value, but you must be cautious as you can leave thin areas particularly on the edges..

Just last week I bought a Columbia L2 Grafonola. The cabinet had no serious dents, scratches etc. but the finish had many areas that were horribly alligatored. I figured that the whole cabinet should be refinished to be able to enjoy it. With that in mind, I decided to experiment with sanding down some of the alligatored areas. I found that with not much effort, the rough areas can be leveled with still enough original finish so that it appears that nothing has been removed. After only spending a few hours on this I have changed my mind about refinishing. Even with what I have done already, the machine looks amazingly better.

It is important when doing this to have a supply of very fine sandpaper as well as various pieces of suitably shaped forms to back up the sandpaper. Start and proceed very slowly. I used an air jet often to blow away the dust so I could check the progress. Avoid sharp edges where the original finish is thin since any sanding will wear through the finish. All this will need to be followed by a little fine polishing with fine steel wool, etc..

If I had known that this subject would be brought up, I would have taken some before and after photos.I have been very surprised and satisfied with the results I got. Of course, you need to determine your own level of skill and patience, but I am now of the opinion that an alligatored finish can be very much improved.

Dan Zalewski

I would leave it alone. Looks good!

Andersun wrote:I would leave it alone. Looks good!

I always like buying a piece with very visible checking. No question then that you're dealing with an unaltered example.

All of the various cleaning methods can get messy. Many people try to clean the finish without removing the hardware and end up with a gooey mess with (especially gold wash) hardware in much worse shape than when they started out.