North Galion in Mahogany Brown or Maroon?

[kleenax]

Photos of my (former) Norths....

Red
Maroon (I called it Oxblood)
Mahogany

[kleenax]

The UGIEST color of the North 7H6!!

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Got ya covered on your other former examples, Ray!

Eye candy for sure, even if some of these aren't actually yours...

www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=9324

Doesn't the last one look close to Benny's? Also a Maroon?

[Pourme]

~

Wow! Isn't that blue one spectacular? I agree with Doug's earlier statement about how beautiful those colored Norths are....I had never seen some of those pictures before.

After seeing the pictures, I do believe mine is maroon/oxblood. The brown is noticeably darker.

This is very interesting.

I think the secret to using the steel wool on Bakelite is the ease of pressure exerted. Only use the amount of pressure needed to get the job done. As in my business  " technique " is what makes it work. I'm willing to give it a try.

Benny

[Pourme]

Ray....I have to agree with you on the ugly beige color. I bet it's worth a lot of you find one.

[kleenax]

Ray....I have to agree with you on the ugly beige color. I bet it's worth a lot of you find one.

Yes, it IS the rarest color of all!

[kleenax]

Here is a photo of the BLUE North 7H6.  You can also see the Green in the lower right.

As a little bit of advice in finding these (on eBay among other places), if you see a BLACK one with a Western Electric Open-face fingerwheel, I can almost guarantee that it is a Painted COLORED North!

I have found Maroon, Mahogany, Green, and BLUE that were painted black! Just remember; look for that WE fingerwheel! Then, just take a cap off of the handset, and see what you will see!

[kleenax]

~

Wow! Isn't that blue one spectacular? I agree with Doug's earlier statement about how beautiful those colored Norths are....I had never seen some of those pictures before.

After seeing the pictures, I do believe mine is maroon/oxblood. The brown is noticeably darker.

This is very interesting.

I think the secret to using the steel wool on Bakelite is the ease of pressure exerted. Only use the amount of pressure needed to get the job done. As in my business  " technique " is what makes it work. I'm willing to give it a try.

Benny

Benny, I sure would ask you NOT to use ANY abrasive at all on them!  The gloss finish is just too thin to mess with other than plain buffing.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Benny, I'd take a look at the finish on yours again. The mottling actually looks like little waves of wood filler peeking through. I would guess yours doesn't actually have any mottling at all, and is probably either Oxblood or Maroon.

Try taking a picture with camera flash, and compare to the other pictures shown previously.

[kleenax]

Benny, I'd take a look at the finish on yours again. The mottling actually looks like little waves of wood filler peeking through. I would guess yours doesn't actually have any mottling at all, and is probably either Oxblood or Maroon.

Try taking a picture with camera flash, and compare to the other pictures shown previously.

Yep; if you take a photo with flash or, better yet, out in the bright sunlight, you will be able to tell if it is indeed Maroon.

Here's the Mahogany illuminated with a flash pic while I was stripping the paint. Incidentally, I use Ethyl Alcohol to strip these; has always worked without damage for me. Oops; picture next post.

[kleenax]

Pic of Mahogany in my "strip tank".

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Benny, I sure would ask you NOT to use ANY abrasive at all on them!  The gloss finish is just too thin to mess with other than plain buffing.

I would actually tend to disagree with you on that. You have to be pretty experienced, but you can bring the gloss back on Bakelite, even after significant wear or sanding. The final polished finish usually doesn't compare to the initial layer from the factory, but the gloss does come right back. Wear isn't the problem, it's the reaction with skin oils that destroys the finish.

Of course, it does all depend on the type of Bakelite, the amount of wood filler showing, etc, but the gloss level is never permanently diminished, unless constantly in contact with skin (like handsets, transmitter/receiver caps, etc). In that case, the finish becomes extremely porous with long-term contact, and would take an incredible amount of sanding to sand through. Several topics and surfaced in the past year showing incredible results from sanding and polishing worn Bakelite handsets and housings.

I guarantee that you could sand and polish the housing on Benny's phone back to factory condition, and the handset looks good enough to polish as well. Is it worth the risk if he has a high-torque buffer? Probably not. One slip, and the housing is destroyed. If it's lower torque (with no risk of flying off the buffer at the wrong angle), I'd try 1000 grit wetsanding followed by a little buffing.

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Oh yeah, and thanks guys, now I'm looking at Galions on eBay, trying to see if they're painted or not...

[oldguy]

Those colored Galions are beautiful Ray. Like Christian stated, the demand for black Galions that may be painted has just gone up for those of us that read this thread.

[AE_Collector]

Ray has had his fair share of luck buying phones that turned out to be rare colours that had been painted black.

Terry

[LarryInMichigan]

Ray has had his fair share of luck buying phones that turned out to be rare colours that had been painted black.

Terry

I have had more than my fair share of buying black phones that had been painted black.  Why people painted black phones black, I never understood.


Larry