The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I bought a tin of Apollon fibre (Tokyo) needles as the contents were clearly not fibre, in fact they are like nothing I've ever seen before, with intriguing panels of embossed letters. Despite a lot of searches online I'm none the wiser as to what they really are, so any thoughts / information welcome.
They were severely rusted, as you can see in the first two pictures. Normally a soak in vinegar overnight is enough to lift most superficial rust but this was really stubborn, and it took a couple of days of multiple treatments with vinegar, salt, copper polish, bicarbonate of soda and car polish to get them back to bare metal.
It's interesting to see the lack of quality control, with the panels being different sizes, and the needles different lengths.
Iain

You’ve done a remarkable job cleaning those up! And showing before and after pictures. Hard to believe they’re the same needles. These spearpoint needles would work in the same way as your Jedson Triphonic needles which depends on the position of the flat area to the record surface to change the volume.

Wow, if I found those, I probably would have said to myself "these are interesting" and then pitch them. You have taken the time to provide understanding about them. Bravo!

James.

jamiegramo wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2024 12:33 pm You’ve done a remarkable job cleaning those up! And showing before and after pictures. Hard to believe they’re the same needles. These spearpoint needles would work in the same way as your Jedson Triphonic needles which depends on the position of the flat area to the record surface to change the volume.

Thank you! There are quite a few that appear sharp and unused to I'll try some.

Roaring20s wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2024 1:00 pm Wow, if I found those, I probably would have said to myself "these are interesting" and then pitch them. You have taken the time to provide understanding about them. Bravo!

James.

Thanks James, yes it was quite a lot of fun getting back to metal in the end. At one point I thought they were probably too perished to do anything with. One part of the process turned them all black....
Iain