Looking for ways to fix a horn, spanish HMV

[Hogan]

Hello All

I´m looking for ways to clean/better this horns appearance. It´s a number 5 Spanish La Voz de su Amo, from 1911 as far as I can see. Anyway, it exactly matches the 1911 catalogue -

I´ve seen several variations of the number 5, with different colour horns, wooden horns, double spring motors... This one has a single spring motor. The first picture is as found - it had all the original pieces intact except the turntable felt, the horn seemed to have been damaged recently where the metal shines through. I´ve painted those areas, matching the colour as well I could. The rest I´ve tried to clean gently using nothing but water and a tiny bit of soap. Nothing happened. Then I tried one of those "magic sponges" and it seemed to get dirty but I see no difference on the horn. 

As you can see in the photographs the horn has spots of rust from beneath the original paint - obviously nothing can be done about that. But the topside of the horn (inside and outside) is much dirtier than the rest - it looks like it sat for 70 years in an attic, the dirt slowly piling up on top of it. It probably did. It wont come off. I haven´t tried any chemicals yet. The paint seems prone to flake off easily too as you can see in the pictures. As for now I´m only working with the horn, I´ll get back to the rest further on... In the sunlight the horn looks a lot better, but inside a house it looks a bit dirty and I would like to get more  out of it!

¿Any ideas? ¿Suggestions? 

H

 

 

 

[BruceW]

Hello Hogan,  I will start by saying you have found an absolutely stunning machine and horn.  My experience with these painted European horns is that the paint almost becomes stained and as you have noted very fragile.   The paint is susceptible to rusting and flaking. 

I have had good success with non pumice hand cleaner (Gojo) with 0000 steel wool.  Be very careful as you could pull off the flakes and wear down the remaining paint very quickly.  So only use where there is built up dirt, not discolored paint.  

Photos are always deceiving but your horn is spectacular as is and leaving it after just washing with mild soap and water would be ok.

Once I have cleaned each horn I wax them with Renaissance Wax which should make your yellows and reds in this horn pop.

 

Good luck as this machine and horn are well worth it.

 

Bruce

[Jerry]

The horn is absolutely beautiful as is. Your light cleaning is all that it needs. Please do not use anything potentially abrasive, such as the steel wool mentioned above. on other horns this may be okay, but not this one. Anything like that will remove the red shading. Please appreciate that it's actually in fantastic condition, given its very old and delicate finish. 

[Hogan]

Thanks for your kind words! Yes maybe to just "let it be" is the way to go! That´s what I´ll do if nothing else comes up. I´d be willing to experiment a little with the Go-Jo on some out of the way spot to see how that comes out - but i can´t find it in Europe.

There are a couple of spots on top where some type of liquid has fallen at some point - and left the paint perfect, you can see it on the photo of the horns backside. But what liquid!? I´ve seen some of these horns that have lost almost all of their paint so things could be worse!!

Here are a couple of pictures of an identical horn (and gramophone) that must have lived a more protected life: this is what it must have looked like originally... I wonder if they´ve varnished it? It looks very glossy, but I´m quite sure it´s original - I hope it´s ok I borrowed the photos from Iber antiques! They have water stamps too and I mention them here! They´re online with other sprectacular spanish gramophones they´ve sold over the years. They are not cheap - usually 3000 euros or more, but then there are very few of them around! I´ve found nothing online on how many were made or anything else. Quite a few models existed and the number 5 seems to have been one of the most popular- it´s also my favourite, I like the proportions with the big horn and small box. It would be interesting to know more about the spanish/french HMV! My decal says both "La compania Francesa del gramophone" on the backside and Spain in other places.

Any other ideas that have not been mentioned about the horn are welcome!