The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

What are edision shavers what do they really do I'm thinking about investing some money in buying one day are they rare depending which models they are I saw one on eBay and it was somewhere around $500.00 i do not have any edision cylinder phonographs yet but is it worth investing money in buying one in the future ? This is the shaver I saw on eBay it does not work but it looks like a simple fix up but idk for sure I'm more a victrola guy on collecting but someday I would like to get into the edision world a little bit only 18 and I
Understand the simple things of motor fix up and regressing these motors back to shape again I recently bought a copy of Eric l Reiss the complete talking machine so I'm ready for getting into some of the major components of these phonographs thanks for reading Morgan Thompson here is the shaver I saw on eBay

Shaving machines are used to "erase" the recordings on brown wax cylinders by shaving off thin layers of wax until a pristine surface appears. They were used in offices that used cylinder dictation systems, and also by home users who made their own records.

They're not as common as say, an Edison Standard, but they are nor particularly rare or sought after. I'd advise you to buy a good cylinder phonograph first, then decide whether or not you want to buy a shaver. If you don't anticipate making a lot of home recordings, the shaver will be of little use.

I personally would not pay $500 for one. In fact, I paid $25 to another collector about 20 years ago. I simply display mine but have never used it. Those shavers were meant to erase Dictaphone cylinders. They have no motor, the crank drives the mandrel through a belt.

This is my take on Edison Shaving Machines. I have the model released in 1905. This is one of the ones that was upgraded with an electric motor. I use it to shave my brown wax cylinders. The sapphire cutter is just supperb and shaves the cylinders to a mirror finish. It also is super fast. I can shave a cylinder with two passes in a minute or two. I enjoy using the machine very much and am very pleased to have it as part of my collection. I also have a personal use hand shaver that is nice but does not produce the finish of the motorized one.

They were also used at the time to shave the surface of a new brown wax blank to prepare it for recording. I have seen them sell for several hundred dollars without being upgraded with the motor.

Here is my youtube link of my machine shaving a cylinder.

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

Rich Gordon

Wow that's amazing thanks everyone for showing me.

Of course, the early Edison cylinder phonographs (A and B series) usually came with shavers as standard equipment (except for the Gem). If you find one with the shaver (and its sapphire) intact, and you're only casually interested in recording, you can dispense with a separate shaving machine.

A Triumph would be best in that case, as the other models are rather underpowered for good shaving.

(Incidentally, if you have a missing blade in a shaver, you might ask around your local jewelers for someone who does gem cutting, and give them the blade mount so they can cut a piece of sapphire to fit - I believe the blade angle is about 60 degrees. I have done this for my Home, and it seems to work pretty well.)

Bill