they often are found with a tinted clear lacquer coating. Very interesting, I really appreciated your post as I learned.
Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> To: Antique phonograph discussion list for pre-1930 phonographs<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 12:17 AM Subject: [Phono-L] polishing stuff, was Weekend Flea Market Find this is just an opinion - and at the end of the day, it's YOUR possession and you can do what you please with it. so, having said that: i never polish my horns. i like patina. it's an old object and deserves to look its age, and if you polish part of it without making everything else as-new, it's just somehow not...right. with the Columbia nickel horns, they often are found with a tinted clear lacquer coating. my columbia BO has one with a most lovely greenish tint. quite subtle but nice. i could strip that and have a mirror-finish horn, but i prefer not to. early on in my collecting, i polished a "dirty" orthophonic tonearm. took off the nasty lacquer top coat and most of the gold, too. so now it's a lovely brass color, and i feel like a sap. and the lesson is, you never know how thin or thick that plating is. and originality is priceless and irretrievable when lost. but again, that's just my opinion.
