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After seeing many beautiful Amberola 1A and 1Bs as featured phonographs, I wondered about the oxidized brass mandrels. Excluding the Idealia and Opera (which seems to have been supplied with a gun metal finish mandrel), and of course the oak Amberolas, how often have you seen an example where the oxidation (at least at the ends) has not been destroyed by thousands of cylinders rubbing it? Have most intact examples been replaced, restored, or were they just lucky enough to be gently used? Judging by the number of "worn bare" mandrels I've seen, I would presume that the oxidized finish, though probably coated with shellac, was not extremely durable, especially when continually scraped with the plaster core of Blue Amberols. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Many oxidized bronze mandrels have been "rubbed out" by the dreaded Blue Amberol plaster cores. Yet, some have survived in pretty good shape. Here's one on an Amberola 1A: Back in the 1980s at a yard sale, I happened across a virtually mint oxidized bronze mandrel - - loose, with no machine; no shaft. Now what are the chances of THAT? Unfortunately, I had no machine at the time that needed it, so I sold it at a phonograph show. A couple of years later, I regretted that!

My advice to anyone with an oxidized bronze mandrel is to NEVER play Blue Amberols or Indestructibles on it.

George P.

My Amberola 1-A (Featured Phonograph #59) has a very nice original mandrel on it. The collection of cylinders that came with it were all 4 minute wax Amberols.

My 1A mandrel is among those that have been worn out over time. Compare to the horn elbow and the M reproducer shown. The elbow is "as found", the reproducer was stripped down to the bare metal and was redone by Steve Farmer.

coyote wrote:After seeing many beautiful Amberola 1A and 1Bs as featured phonographs, I wondered about the oxidized brass mandrels. Excluding the Idealia and Opera (which seems to have been supplied with a gun metal finish mandrel), and of course the oak Amberolas, how often have you seen an example where the oxidation (at least at the ends) has not been destroyed by thousands of cylinders rubbing it? Have most intact examples been replaced, restored, or were they just lucky enough to be gently used? Judging by the number of "worn bare" mandrels I've seen, I would presume that the oxidized finish, though probably coated with shellac, was not extremely durable, especially when continually scraped with the plaster core of Blue Amberols. Any thoughts are appreciated.

The oxidized bronze finish is more durable than you might imagine. I bought a restored Opera in 1985 and the mandrel had undoubtedly been restored as well. I can't imagine how many records that I have played on it since then. No signs of wear yet...

How does one go about refinishing one of those? The former owner of my Ia replated all of the gold parts and included the mandrel. It doesn't look weird to me because I'm used to it, but I'd like to have it look correct.

Jim

I think Steve Farmer is your guy for this stuff. I've heard nothing but great things about him.

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:I think Steve Farmer is your guy for this stuff. I've heard nothing but great things about him.

Sean

The elbow and reproducer on this one have the original finish. Farmer redid the mandrel.

phonojim wrote:How does one go about refinishing one of those?Jim

I believe the mandrel is prepared and re-plated with copper or bronze metal, then daubed with nitric acid to blacken those areas.