My New (old) Horn
Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2014 9:23 pm
This is about my Union find, since everyone else seems to get a Union find story.
I've become selective (disciplined?) in my collecting and since I couldn't find something I really needed at the Union show, I decided to buy a horn that needed some restoration. This horn was among a bunch of derelict horns offered for sale on the back porch at Union. The attraction for me was the fact that it was designed for a European mount (the locking slot is in the horn rather than in the elbow, opposite of Victor horns), and I have a machine that it will fit. To give some perspective, the horn is about 21 inched across.
As you can see in the first picture that it's painted off-white. This paint was obviously not original, so removing it was the plan from the start. What I found was that this was some really stubborn paint. Citristrip did little to it, so I went for the dangerous cancer-causing chemical stripper from the mega-home improvement store which also had a tough time softening the paint.
To my surprise, the underlying finish was nickel! Not perfect, but still it's nickel. A little Flitz polish & lots of elbow grease has it looking pretty good. Still needs some work on the small end, but not bad for 20 bucks!
See Pictures below.
So that's my Union 2014 story.
I've become selective (disciplined?) in my collecting and since I couldn't find something I really needed at the Union show, I decided to buy a horn that needed some restoration. This horn was among a bunch of derelict horns offered for sale on the back porch at Union. The attraction for me was the fact that it was designed for a European mount (the locking slot is in the horn rather than in the elbow, opposite of Victor horns), and I have a machine that it will fit. To give some perspective, the horn is about 21 inched across.
As you can see in the first picture that it's painted off-white. This paint was obviously not original, so removing it was the plan from the start. What I found was that this was some really stubborn paint. Citristrip did little to it, so I went for the dangerous cancer-causing chemical stripper from the mega-home improvement store which also had a tough time softening the paint.
To my surprise, the underlying finish was nickel! Not perfect, but still it's nickel. A little Flitz polish & lots of elbow grease has it looking pretty good. Still needs some work on the small end, but not bad for 20 bucks!
See Pictures below.
So that's my Union 2014 story.
