The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi Can I use any kind of polish to polish a Edison Horn.Thanks

What sort of horn?

It's for a Edison Standard cylinder machine.

I think the question was referring to what sort of horn material ie. wood, metal, glass etc

Meguires makes a great paste cleaning wax that I have used on metal horns with an original painted surface and have had great results.

Wes

If you have a black painted horn with original, but scratched finish and don't want to repaint, try this method:
Use a black Sharpie marker to touch up all of the scratches - when you are done, they will look apparently shiny in contrast to the original paint, but don't worry...

Second, spray the horn surface with WD40 and wipe it with a soft cloth or paper towel to completely cover all of the touch ups and the entire surface. Amazingly, this will tend to restore the black appearance of the original paint without harming it and blend in all of the touch ups. When done wipe off all of the excess.

I used this method on a Cygnet horn that I bought on eBay, which arrived with a very scratched up side that wasn't shown in the listing... it worked great. I also used it on a Victor R horn which was in good physical condition, but suffered from some scratching on the pewter bell. I thought the silver scratches were distracting and did not want to repaint it... after using this method it now looks good and the touch ups don't show.