Ivory Japanese #4 Telephone

[LarryInMichigan]

This: ebay link phone arrived this evening.  It cost me about $60 with shipping.  This is a Japanese #4 phone but apparently made for export as the wiring diagram glued inside the shell and the label glued to the bottom are entirely in English.  My guess would be that the phone was intended for a PABX.  The plastic is in mostly good condition, but it is discolored, and I don't think that the discoloration will bleach out.

Larry

[Greg G.]

... The plastic is in mostly good condition, but it is discolored, and I don't think that the discoloration will bleach out.

Larry

Why not?  Why couldn't you use the usual bleaching methods on it?

[LarryInMichigan]

... The plastic is in mostly good condition, but it is discolored, and I don't think that the discoloration will bleach out.

Larry

Why not?  Why couldn't you use the usual bleaching methods on it?

The plastic is something like plaskon.  I have not had any success bleaching plaskon.

Larry

[LarryInMichigan]

The surface of the plastic is quite dull, and polishing it is not making it any more shiny.  Did these phones originally have a shiny finish?

Larry

[Greg G.]

Forum member mienaichizu http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=34 has a lot of these type of phones, he might know, but he hasn't been on here for a while.  Your phone doesn't look that bad, really.

[LarryInMichigan]

Well, it seems that I was wrong about the discoloration.  I left a couple of drops of chlorine bleach on the crack on the side to lighten the dirt in the crack and found that the bleach had removed some of the discoloration on the surface in the area near the crack.  I did some soaking of the plastic in chlorine bleach solution and also smeared some Soft Scrub cleanser with bleach over parts of the phone, and the discoloration has been significantly reduced.  This plastic seems more porous than plaskon, and the discoloration was more superficial than I thought.  The phone may come out looking pretty nice.  Unfortunately, the ugly dark dirt in the crack by one of the cradle ears seems to be permanent.  I suspect that the entire section of the cradle had broken off and someone glued it back together with whatever dirt had stuck to the broken edges.  I might smear some ivory paint into the crack to hide it.  I need to touch up the ivory painted metal piece which sits under the cradle anyway.

Larry

[Greg G.]

Try soaking it in oxyclean to get the ugly dark dirt out.

[LarryInMichigan]

Try soaking it in oxyclean to get the ugly dark dirt out.

I did.  I think that the dirt in the crack on the cradle is glued in place.

Larry

[Doug Rose]

Larry ....I found on on eBay in 2006 for $15. It had the look and feel of thermplastic and looks just like my Ivory 302. It did shine up for me. This is an old ATCA picture. I love the design of the #4 Japanese phones....they just scream deco.

Here is a black NEC one I have on eBay this week....Doug

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301563947857

[LarryInMichigan]

The plastic on this one is nothing like the thermoplastic found on a 302 or the like.  This plastic is thick and hard.  It does not bend at all, and it is somewhat brittle.

I found that I can coax a bit of shine out of it by giving it a serious rubbing with Brasso.

Larry