Metal North Electric Galion

wds · October 21, 2011, 01:35:47 PM

Just picked up this metal North Telephone. It seems to be unmolested, down to the original white paint. I've been watching for one of these for quite a while, but the metal ones never seem to come up. I have a bakelite version that is my everyday phone for the LR, but this metal one may take it's place. It even has the north dial. I don't see any other colors under the white - although not in good shape. Not sure if I should strip it down and repaint white, or just leave it alone. Any suggestions?

Doug Rose · October 21, 2011, 01:54:22 PM

Quote from: wds on October 21, 2011, 01:35:47 PM
Just picked up this metal North Telephone. It seems to be unmolested, down to the original white paint. I've been watching for one of these for quite a while, but the metal ones never seem to come up. I have a bakelite version that is my everyday phone for the LR, but this metal one may take it's place. It even has the north dial. I don't see any other colors under the white - although not in good shape. Not sure if I should strip it down and repaint white, or just leave it alone. Any suggestions?

Dave...I was watching this with interest as I could not tell if the fingerwheel was painted white of is a solid white. It looks to be a North dial and if the fingerwheel is solid bakelite or tenite it would be a prize. In the end I thought I saw back in one of the number holes so I passed on it. If the finger wheel is white, I'd have it professionally repainted white. It is cool looking......nice catch....Doug

wds · October 21, 2011, 01:59:11 PM

Other than giving the dial a few spins, I didn't pay much attention to it. I'll look it over tonight and see if it's metal or not. Thanks for the heads up on the fingerwheel - I wouldn't have been very happy if I had melted it with paint stripper.

Doug Rose · October 21, 2011, 02:08:10 PM

Quote from: wds on October 21, 2011, 01:59:11 PM
Other than giving the dial a few spins, I didn't pay much attention to it. I'll look it over tonight and see if it's metal or not. Thanks for the heads up on the fingerwheel - I wouldn't have been very happy if I had melted it with paint stripper.

Dave....since I picked up two North colours last year, they are my new favorites. North dials are very nice and most North's that I have seen have AE dials. The Mahogany North I have has a WE5J, the Green has a North dial, but the fingerwheel was black. It should have matched the green but I got a clear one and it looks great. I have a Metal North stripped down to metal and polished with Noxon and a wire brush. Very cool looking, I must say! Good luck with it. ....Doug

wds · October 21, 2011, 04:33:35 PM

It's definitely not a metal fingerwheel. My guess would be tenite, but could be bakelite. Maybe you can tell by looking at it. It looks like it is black, and then painted white. Nice number card hiding on the back of the dial card holder.

Doug Rose · October 21, 2011, 04:37:02 PM

Quote from: wds on October 21, 2011, 04:33:35 PM
It's definitely not a metal fingerwheel. My guess would be tenite, but could be bakelite. Maybe you can tell by looking at it. It looks like it is black, and then painted white. Nice number card hiding on the back of the dial card holder.

Black plastic painted white....bummer. Still a good phone at a good price. ....Doug

wds · October 25, 2011, 12:59:03 PM

After removing two layers of white paint, underneath was the original black. So I decided to stick with the black and cleaned the fingerwheel back to the original black color. Turned out pretty nice, but now I need another handset cord.

Doug Rose · October 25, 2011, 01:25:47 PM

Quote from: wds on October 25, 2011, 12:59:03 PM
After removing two layers of white paint, underneath was the original black. So I decided to stick with the black and cleaned the fingerwheel back to the original black color. Turned out pretty nice, but now I need another handset cord.

Great Paint job Dave.....sure is pretty....Doug

LarryInMichigan · October 25, 2011, 01:52:57 PM

Dave,

It looks great. It looks like there are no vents in the rear like there are in the bakelite shells. Is the shell interchangeable with the bakelite version? What is the date on the base?

Larry

wds · October 25, 2011, 01:58:36 PM

Your right about the vents. I hadn't even noticed, but no vents on this one. I didn't see a date on the metal shell, as there's a lot of white paint over spray on the inside, but the dates on the rest of the phone range from 1940 on the handset, to 1951 on the coil. I'll take another look tonight and see if I can't find a date on the shell. The subset I use to test my phones is the base off of a bakelite North Galion - you can see it in the background of the last picture. The two bases were identical in appearance, but I'll check to see if it fits on the metal phone. I like to use the North base for my subset better than a 302 base, because the North base has a nice terminal strip along the side.

wds · October 25, 2011, 03:51:31 PM

Doug Rose -

you mentioned earlier that you had a couple metal Galions - do yours have vents?

wds · October 25, 2011, 06:01:18 PM

The base plate, dial, and coil is dated 1951. The handset is dated 1944. There is some printing on the shell, but I can't make it out. There is no engraving on the metal shell, instead the engraving is on the bottom of the base. Also, the base is identical to my other Galion bases.

Doug Rose · October 25, 2011, 06:32:35 PM

Quote from: wds on October 25, 2011, 03:51:31 PM
Doug Rose -

you mentioned earlier that you had a couple metal Galions - do yours have vents?

Metal Galions Do NOT Have vents like their bakelite brothers and the bases are interchangeable.....Doug

paul-f · October 25, 2011, 11:46:56 PM

North sets have been one of my favorites since the early days of my site...

http://www.paul-f.com/north.htm

There have been several notorious copies, and many confuse the H-series sets with the Northern Electric Uniphones.

wds · October 26, 2011, 08:52:06 AM

I looked and looked for that page on your website and couldn't find it - thanks for the link. I was unable to get the North base to fit on a 302 shell - the ringer got in the way. However, I did purchase a couple of those repro 684 subset covers from Ray, and they fit nicely on the 302 base and the North base. I did have to drill a new hole in the North base as the screw holes on the covers didn't match with the North base, but otherwise they worked quite well.

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Metal North Electric Galion