Ivory North Galion

LarryInMichigan · July 13, 2011, 12:23:25 PM

I saw this phone online the other day and couldn't resist. It cost me $81 with shipping. It just arrived today. It is in pretty good condition, with a few cracks and minor discoloration. The finger wheel is made of some plastic type material. The feet appear to be (or have been) ivory. The dial center ring, finger stop, plungers, and handset rings are metal which looks like it has been brass or gold plated.

The internals of the phone are not quite right. The base is dated 1950, but there is a WE inductor coil dated IV 52. Despite the "ST. Line Ringer" printed on the bottom, the ringer is a 50 Hz frequency ringer. The condenser is missing altogether.

I would appreciate any advice as to how to restore this phone without destroying it. I would like to remove the discoloration, repair the cracks, and polish the metal. I would also like to find a replacement condenser and ringer.

Larry

These are two of the listing pictures:

Doug Rose · July 13, 2011, 12:40:11 PM

Larry...you got such a deal! One just went on eBay a few days ago, not nearly as nice for almost $300. Yours is beautiful with the very hard to find matching finger wheel. Outstanding brass trim. This is just a beauty. Great find!! Where did you get it?....Doug

LarryInMichigan · July 13, 2011, 12:51:43 PM

I am glad to hear that I got a good deal. I would rather not divulge the source where I found it though (but it wasn't a flea market in Maine). I have found a few good finds there, like my early WE #2 dial and my AE34.

The finger wheel has a number of cracks in it, and I don't expect that it would survive much use. I would greatly appreciate suggestions as to how to clean the dirt out of the cracks so that I might have a chance at closing them with super glue. Right now the finger wheel is soaking in water and dish detergent.

Will polishing with Brasso damage the metal parts?

Larry

LarryInMichigan · July 13, 2011, 12:54:54 PM

I believe that the handset is made of tenite (It smells like bad cheese). The shell seems to be a different material.

Larry

Doug Rose · July 13, 2011, 01:01:46 PM

Brasso or Noxon on the metal will make it shine. My green one was supposed to have a green finger wheel, but was long replaced by a black one. They break easily. I found a clear North finger wheel (not easy to find) and it looks great, but I'd rather have the correct color like yours. Try a qTip with some norvus II on it and see if you can clean up the cracks. It is surely a beautiful phone...Doug

Dennis Markham · July 13, 2011, 01:34:11 PM

Great find, Larry! Congratulations. This will be a good entry for the July Find of the Month.

Doug Rose · July 13, 2011, 02:13:14 PM

Quote from: Dennis Markham on July 13, 2011, 01:34:11 PM
Great find, Larry! Congratulations. This will be a good entry for the July Find of the Month.

And will be real tough to beat, it is stunning!!

paul-f · July 13, 2011, 05:21:29 PM

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on July 13, 2011, 12:23:25 PM
I would also like to find a replacement condenser and ringer.

Nice find, Larry! That's always been one of my personal favorites -- quite elegant looking.

The easiest way to find the condenser and ringer is probably getting a cheap H series black desk set with damaged housing. I think I cleaned out my North parts phones last year, but will take another look.

LarryInMichigan · July 13, 2011, 05:59:58 PM

Well, I started cleaning the phone, and I have already polished the gold finish off of the finger stop. It now looks like chrome. Does anyone know how the parts were plated? There seems to be too much oxidation on the plating for it to be gold. I would like to do something to restore the gold look to the finger stop.

Larry

Doug Rose · July 13, 2011, 06:45:44 PM

Do the handset rings and the retainer ring, maybe they are chrome or nickle as well. I have found a few "dirty brass" sticks that turned out to be nickel underneath. I'll take it off your hands if you are unhappy

....great.. great find....Doug

LarryInMichigan · July 13, 2011, 06:53:02 PM

The retainer and handset rings appear to be brass, but there seems to be the remains of some coating on them, so I am wondering if they had been gold plated or painted. I have a 1930 Emerson fan which has gold painted brass blades. The finger stop is probably chrome plated steel. It is attracted to a magnet. I sure wish that I had tried the magnet on it before I started polishing it. I might try some metallic gold spray paint on it. That would be much cheaper than brass or gold plating it.

I think that I will hold onto the phone for a while. If I destroy it much more, then I will consider selling it. I am trying now to remove some red blotches in the shell. I was very successful in removing similar blotches from an ivory 354 shell with the hair peroxide.

Larry

JorgeAmely · July 14, 2011, 01:33:54 PM

Larry:
Nice find. This is definitely a keeper.

Sargeguy · July 16, 2011, 02:40:40 PM

would electrical conductor cleaner harm the fingerwheel?

LarryInMichigan · July 16, 2011, 11:01:12 PM

Quote from: Sargeguy on July 16, 2011, 02:40:40 PM
would electrical conductor cleaner harm the fingerwheel?

I actually tried using electrical contact cleaner on the one crack in the shell to see if if might remove the visible dirt from the crack, and it worked beautifully. I then tried it on the finger wheel, with a bit less success, but it did not appear to cause any harm.

I am fairly sure now that the metal parts were gold plated, and that I already inadvertently removed some of the plating. The plating on the handset rings is in poor condition, so I need to decide what to do about it. I could polish the rings to make them shiny, which would remove the remainder of the gold or just clean the gently to preserve as much of the gold as possible. Spending hundreds of $$$ to redo the gold plating is out of my budget.

Larry

Doug Rose · July 17, 2011, 12:31:51 PM

Larry....polish the brass! It will look phenomenal....Doug

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Ivory North Galion