The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently purchased a Columbia BI (I'm pretty sure that's what it is, I can't find any patent plate info on it) and the horn is in serious need of cleaning and polishing. I wiped away grime to find that the outside was coated with a layer of brownish paint. That doesn't bother me as much as the interior of the horn which appears to be nickel plated under some sort of dulled protective coating that has become damaged. The interior of the horn is spotted and streaked as a result of whatever coating was put over the nickel plating. Any tips on how I can remove the coating and get back to the shiny nickel/chrome? I polished a small section, but that took about half an hour with MAAS polish to get through whatever the coating is. The nickel/chrome plate looks enough intact to be shined up. Any tips/tricks would be much appreciated!
Thanks!
Ed.

I had a similar problem with a nickel-plated horn for a cylinder machine. Nevr-Dull worked for me. It took about 2-3 hours as I recall, but the results were worth it.

Good luck!

George P.

Paint stripper (gel, not liquid) will very quickly remove varnish or lacquer, won't attack the plating, and can be washed off with water.

Thanks George. I always forget about Nevr-Dull. That one small shiny section I managed to clean gives me hope that the horn will shine again!

Phono48, I thought about stripper, but was concerned about it's effects on the plating. I was working on some dresser hardware once and stripped the plating right off with stripper. Do you have a brand that you like and have used successfully on plated metal?

40 years ago when I was a kid I had someone give me a NOS horn like that. It was still in the packing crate thing. I opened it up of course and the horn was 'like new' yet. I didn't know for probably 10-15 years what the thing was for as I'd never seen a Columbia machine and didn't know how the horns connected on them. My Dad sold the horn a year or two later and since it didn't fit an Edison, I wasn't too concerned. But those things sure are nice looking when they are shiny, I'll give them that. Hopefully, it found a good home and I'm pretty sure the guy that bought it knew what it was for. Well good luck cleaning it up, Columbia sure made a lot of nice looking machines, but I've never owned one.

I'd try using paint thinner to see if you can get the film off. Then, get a bottle of Flitz, and put in some elbow grease. With luck, that horn will SHINE.

Garret

Thanks for those tips. Whatever is on that horn is really on there.

Garret wrote: get a bottle of Flitz, and put in some elbow grease.

+1 for Flitz metal polish. It's the best stuff I've ever used and I've tried a lot of different metal polishes. It does take some elbow grease to bring out the shine but it's well worth the effort. I just finished polishing the nickel bed plate on my Columbia AZ with Flitz and it looks great. I buy it in a tube at my local ACE hardware but most good hardware stores should carry it.

Doug

I have had good luck with both Never Dull and Flitz. Flitz seems to be get quicker results.