Copper is Cool!

[Doug Rose]

Collectors .......a Western Electric 684 ringer box I found this this summer at a flea market. The paint was horrendous, so I stripped it off. WE coated their early metals with copper to prevent rusting. Its a very thin coating that can come off with a little too much elbow grease. Well the 684 is not copper coated, its copper! A magnet does not stick and I used sand paper in tough places. The second is a copper coated wall phone. A lot of TLC to remove the black paint and not damage the copper coat. The WE decal I added after and I still am not sure about it.  #2 and #4 dials made from #2s have a copper coating around the dial where that Patent writing is. Remove the paint and if there is no corrosion, you have one sharp looking dial. There is more corrosion on the dial than I normally like, but this is a fairly tough butt set to find. The dial plate should be notchless, but it was destroyed. Copper is Cool!!!.....Doug

[Craig T]

  Another gem Doug! It's beautiful!

Is it too early to schedule a seat on your chartered phone hunting trip?

[Dan/Panther]

Doug;
Right now I'm dangling a clove of garlic, and a crucifix in front of my monitor, is it effecting you in any way ?
In the words of that famous old west icon Ike Clanton; "No one has that much darn luck, You're cheating."
D/P

[dsk]

Great!

You are the right owner of those, I had ran out of elbow grease long time before the shiny surface got so shiny.

They are realy shiny. Do you coat them to keep them like that?

Brass music instruments are often coated, and is kept shiny quite long with only soap and water.

dsk

[Doug Rose]

They are realy shiny. Do you coat them to keep them like that?

I clean all my brass and copper until I get a real nice all around shine, then I let them go natural. I like the patina that both copper and brass get after a few months. They do look cool all shined up, but its not realistic to think they were kept this way. Its the same issue I have when I see a phone buffed to this mirror shine that leaves fingerprints when you touch it. It looks fake to me. Phones are not supposed to look like your new Lexus. I clean them up when I get them to the best of my abilities, then; I dust them once a month with  feather duster and they look good to me...Sorry for the long winded answer...Doug