[Phono-L] Advice please - holes in cylinder surface

[Norman Bruderhofer]

Chris, These holes look indeed different than the ones I used to find 
sometimes on black wax cylinders. The usual holes are, to what I was to 
figure out, caused by the collapse of the wax surface when tiny bubbles 
are underneath it. You can see this sometimes on broken black wax 
cylinders, both 2-minute and 4-minutes.
The holes on your cylinder do not have an uncommon size though. It's 
just the large group of them what looks suspicious. A regular stylus 
should even be able to play over such an area, especially when you are 
using a Model B reproducer which has a bullet sapphire instead of the 
doorknob of a C.
As Steven pointed out, candle wax could actually do but it can be sticky 
and, as a worst case, can mess up your stylus that has to cleaned then. 
I had good success with filling comparable holes with modelling wax (for 
wood restoration) with a wooden toothpick. It takes a lot of time and 
you should have the cylinder on the mandrel to give it a better support 
while applying the wax.

Norman


Chris Kocsis wrote:
> I just got a cylinder I won on eBay (Edison 9100, Bob Roberts' 
> Everybody Works But Father) to replace mine that cracked. It was 
> advertised as in excellent + condition, and as I pulled it out of its 
> sleeve it looked like it was. But as I turned it to examine it 
> closely, I found a strange, almost patterned number of deep circular 
> pits among the grooves. I'm afraid to play it in case the stylus 
> catches in these holes and gets ripped out. I'm attaching a picture.
>
> I would appreciate advice (as well as any information on how these 
> holes could have formed -- I'm not an experienced collector, but I've 
> never seen anything like them before).
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Chris
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