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Bought a brown wax Columbia “Marching Through Georgia” Edison concert cylinder. It was nicely double boxed but no packing within the cylinder container. It sadly arrived shattered. I don’t have the heart to toss it, I know this is a futile question, but has only ever been able to repair a brown wax cylinder? I was so looking forward to hearing this! Paid 160$ for it, which see,Ed like a good price for a large concert cylinder.

KCW wrote: Sun May 29, 2022 9:49 am Bought a brown wax Columbia “Marching Through Georgia” Edison concert cylinder. It was nicely double boxed but no packing within the cylinder container. It sadly arrived shattered. I don’t have the heart to toss it, I know this is a futile question, but has only ever been able to repair a brown wax cylinder? I was so looking forward to hearing this! Paid 160$ for it, which see,Ed like a good price for a large concert cylinder.

I’m feelin for ya’. I’ve been burned before like that. Nothing like paying for something out the wazoo and having it come back all broken because the seller, or people who do the packing didn’t know what they were doing! All you can do is raise a fuss to get the $$$ back! Did you check the seller’s feedback to see if they have any experience shipping a fragile item like that? I think people know more about shipping 78s than cylinders but sometimes you have to be VERY careful from who you’re buying from and make sure it’s from someone who knows what they are doing and not some picker that knows nothing. I learned the hard way 4 years ago when I had an even more expensive item damaged in transit. I had to pass on some items I really wanted because I got red flags reading descriptions of items, Feedback, and whatever else they were selling. I’d just rather not have it than have it shown up broken.

That is a shame. I don’t think I ever received a broken cylinder in the mail, though I have received at least 10 or 20 broken 78s in the mail since I began collecting 15 years ago.

MATTROSE94 wrote: Sun May 29, 2022 11:36 am That is a shame. I don’t think I ever received a broken cylinder in the mail, though I have received at least 10 or 20 broken 78s in the mail since I began collecting 15 years ago.

You ever bought a machine online that came with 78s and when you got the machine you discover 78s STILL IN THE HOLDER that is now broken off because of the weight of the records with the pot metal tonearm bracket snapped? That’s what happens when you see “Professionally Packed” in some Ebay descriptions!

To the sellers credit, I asked for a refund and had it within the hour. No questions asked. Still, the cylinder is in about 8 pieces. My goal now is to get it restored somehow, if possible, even if it costs some cash to do so. I found the name of someone online who knows a lot about this stuff. Dr. Michael Khanchalian. Anyone deal with him before or know how to reach him? Any input much appreciated!

This happened to me one before and I tried glueing a Pathé concert cylinder together. It didn’t work out at all so I’m not going to try that again.

The fragment for my cylinder are big enough that I feel like theoretically it could be restored. By restores, I mean somehow get the audio off digitally.

Dr. Khanchalian, AKA "The Cylinder Doctor," is generally recognized as the authority on restoring damaged wax cylinders. He used to set up at the Union show each year, and even gave presentations on the subject. His results are pretty amazing, although I personally haven't had him do any work for me. The work is highly detailed and time consuming.

Good luck.

Mike Khanchalian is an absolute wizard at cylinder restoration, and his work is astonishing. But as AZ noted, it's extremely time-consuming and consequently his work doesn't come cheap. But there's no one more experienced, and successful, in this arcane art.

Here is what happened to a concert record shipped by one of those "know it all, I've been shipping stuff for years" ebay jerks.
It was an excellent record.

Chuck

Anyone know how I reach him? I’d love to pursue it, kind of an adventure of a process. If anyone can point me towards him that would be wonderful. Thank you!

I'll PM you his email address.