The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently had the great fortune to find a brass Brunswick Ultona tone arm with nearly pristine gold plating. (Yea!!! No pot metal... to include the reproducer, too!)

For those of you who electroplate, I would like your opinion on protecting the gold finish. I know not to use any polishes or abrasives to clean the finish. However, will applying a coat of pure carnuba wax protect and prolong the finish?

As always, thank you for your advice.

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I cant really help with your question Tinkerbell, but wanted to congratulate you on your find.
That's a stunning Brunswick you found, & I'm pleased it's all worked out in the end.

I can say that I've used bees wax on nickel plating before, to help ward off tarnishing etc, but I've never done it on gold plating before. I do know Edison used a clear lacquer over gold plating, but I have no idea about other companies, nor whether this would be the way to go now.

gramophoneshane wrote:I cant really help with your question Tinkerbell, but wanted to congratulate you on your find.
That's a stunning Brunswick you found, & I'm pleased it's all worked out in the end.

Me, too! I'm positively thrilled... especially with my beautiful tone arm find! I heard they existed, but didn't think I'd ever be fortunate enough to come across one. Thank you for your response.

As they say "If it isn't broke,don't fix it".It has lasted this long,I would just install it and enjoy it.Why take the chance that a chemical reaction happens???.It never came that way.Just my two cents.In light of this completion.....now we wait to hear about the "fresh" find that is bound to happen!!!..... .

gramophone78 wrote:As they say "If it isn't broke,don't fix it".It has lasted this long,I would just install it and enjoy it.

Sage advice... and you are right, if it has lasted this long, well the chances are it will likely outlast me!

gramophone78 wrote:now we wait to hear about the "fresh" find that is bound to happen!!!..... .

If I had only the sense to have started collecting earlier in my life... I remember when I was in the Army and stationed in southern Alabama, somebody putting a beautiful nickelodeon out on the street for the junkman because the owner thought it was just old stuff and wanted to modernize. I was still in my late teens at the time, (well maybe 20), so I had no clue to its potential value. This kind of thing was happening probably once every week or two.

One of my friends was perceptive enough at that time, though, to recognize many discarded antiques for what they were worth and grabbed them up.

Ah, hindsight... I can only hope that someday I may find that truly "fresh find" when visiting one of the older homes in my neighborhood. I can dream, can't I???