The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi everyone. Wanted to ask anyone with more years of experience than me in collecting Edison cylinder records. I have many Edison 2-minute cylinder records where the title and other information on the top edge is difficult to read. I read one time that the lettering on many of these originally was almost white in appearance. If this is true, is there any method to whiten the letters and numbers? Mainly interested for the purpose of being able to read and identify the cylinders easier and faster. But also don't want to use any product that could be detrimental in the long term. Thanks. David

I've never used it myself, but I've heard positive reports of white shoe polish or even crayon to restore the lettering. (Wiping off the residue outside the lettering of course.)

George P.

I bought some super cheap water-soluble white craft paint last year at Walmart to experiment with on title edges. Using a Q-tip, just swab it along the lettering, let it sit for a few minutes then wipe off with a paper towel, the paint remains in the letters, but is gone from the rest of the area. It took me several attempts to get it just right with timing and all that, but the results were great on the ones I did. The nice thing seems to be if you leave the paint on for too long, a tiny dab of water will remove it. I haven't tried this on wax yet, but it should work just as well, I'd be careful to be sure the water if needed was only tepid.

Sean

I don't know if this is a good idea for Gold Molded (wax) cylinders, but here's what I use on some of my reproduction Berliners... a "tire crayon", they sell them at auto part stores for coloring in the lettering on car tires. It feels and acts like a white crayon but is larger, readily available and inexpensive.

I have used a white crayon or white out, wiping the excess off with good results.