MAHAGONY HOME?

[ambrola]

Does the case look like mahogany to you guys? The lid certainly is.

[Phonofreak]

It sure is. If that's yours, great score.
Harvey Kravitz

[ambrola]

Thanks Harvey. I was thinking about you yesterday. Paul Baker was down here at the house last week and he saw that I needed a limit pin for a glass diaphragm. He sent it in the mail and it arrived yesterday. I opened the envelope, and there was a note wrapped around a piece of thin cardboard and inside was a plastic bag. I looked and looked but couldn't see the pin. Then I looked at all the paper and there was a small hole through the plastic, the cardboard through the note and through the envelope. Wow is all I can say after I spent an hour looking in the floor. That poor brush never stood a chance.

[ambrola]

Does the case look like mahogany to you guys? The lid certainly is.

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Someone want to tackle a finish job?

[EarlH]

What color are those supposed to be? It looks like someone sort of did something to it, but didn't get the color right. I realize it's supposed to be darker (by quite a bit actually), but I'm not sure how Edison finished their earlier mahogany machines. If it's the same color as the earlier Victrolas, like in the picture I can do that, but I've never figured out what that purplish/brown color was that Edison used on the diamond disk machines after about 1913 or so. They dyed the wood with water dye's as a rule and that's pretty hard to do when you are refinishing things because you'll always end up with patches that just won't take water dye. But the methanol and oil based stains and dyes work ok. Of course spray lacquer will work as well, but it's inappropriate on something that old. Shellac and varnish was more the order when that was made. That Victrola is shellac and rubbing varnish, probably 4-5 coats of varnish and then rubbed out after it cured. Victor put more work into their finishes as a rule than Edison did, but Edison did tend to do pretty nice work on the more expensive offerings. Having said that, I'm working on an oak Victrola right now from the 1916-17 period and they definitely put more varnish on the front than they did on the sides! As far as your Edison goes, it shouldn't be too hard to refinish it as long as it hasn't been given the tune up with Pledge. That stuff should be outlawed.

[FloridaClay]

Your call of course, but I'd leave the finish alone other than perhaps a bit of something like Kotton Klenser lemon oil and beeswax polish or Howard's Feed-N-Wax.

Clay

[Jerry B.]

I looked at the photos and am not sure what I see. Is the finish gone and we're seeing the shadow where the decal used to be? If that's true, I would give it some good history and try to match an original finish. Jerry Blais

[EarlH]

You are not looking at the original finish on that Edison It would not have been that light at all, unless it faded really badly, but even then it wouldn't have faded under the lid to the same color as everything else except under the decal.
I've seen those mahogany Home's but I just can't remember what the color was. Earlier on most of the piano and phonograph companies tended to make the mahogany redder than they did later on and of course by the early 20's it was that very dark brown. But Edison kind of marched to a different drummer and they did that Cordovan Mahogany color that you'll see on the disk machines. Some of the Chippendale machines are quite red and that Victrola picture I posted looked a lot more red with a flash picture than it did in normal light. I found that one on an open front porch and it was in really bad shape.
I have this Pooley cabinet Victrola to finish later on once I get that molding made and I could do this for you at the same time as I do that Victrola, I just don't know about the color. That Victrola was something I did 15-18 years ago. I've never really refinished too many Edison machines. The only Edison stuff I've done is the radios and radio/phonographs and of course those are lacquer and all together different as far as finishing them would go. I did varnish a few Opera horns and cabinets and those damned horns are one of the worst things there is to varnish. Reds tended to fade really badly in those days too, so most of what we see now is showing a lot more brown than it would have new. Red is still an unstable color with wood dye's but they are a lot better now than they were 100 years ago. I think most of that stuff was coal tar derived back then.

[rgordon939]

I have to agree with Jerry that it sure looks that originally there was a Home Banner Decal on the case.

Rich Gordon

[FloridaClay]

I looked at the photos and am not sure what I see. Is the finish gone and we're seeing the shadow where the decal used to be? If that's true, I would give it some good history and try to match an original finish. Jerry Blais

Jerry you are right! You can clearly see the wood grain where the script Edison signature used to be. Apparently it has been stripped.

Clay