I was talking to Anthony today while I was working in the shed, we talked about dates stamps on Tilley founts and he told me to keep an eye on the date stamps. Well I knew what the dates were on my restored lamps so I thought I would go and have a look at my spares, to my surprise I found X246 and it was dated 10/56 which I thought that the date stamping started in 1957. The reason why I checked was because he said he had one earlier than 1957 with a date stamp, this lamp was in my scrap because I thought that the fount was too far gone for my liking, so I remember reading on this forum that you can use steel wool and I thought why not the fount is no good to me in this condition so what do I have to lose. It's true the steel wool works, then I used Autosol to finish up with, wow what was I thinking putting this fount in the scrap. Here are the results of some hard work but I'm amazed how well she has come up, so thank you Anthony otherwise this lamp would still be in the scrap. I am pretty happy with the results.
For a scrappy, that’s looking good fellas! If anyone can get a dull worn old fount to shine, its you guys. Well done.
A good outcome Brian. That makes 2 X246s I know of dated October 1956. Both in Australia. I encourage others to check dates. There may be older.
Nice work on that tank, @Buggerlugs. Did you use 0000 steel wool? Also... good work on 10/56. Cheers Tony
@Buggerlugs If you can find 0000 steel wool, it is very fine and ideal for the job you did above. Cheers Tony
@Anthony, Well I forgot that I still had some other X246 lamps just hanging out the back of the house, mainly for looks they are just spares put together with broken globes ect. Now to the point, well it seems there is three X246s dated 10/56, so I guess I will have to get the steel wool out again and see what I can do. Here are some photos of her.
Good job mate. Steel wool is an almost forgotten about thing these days. I use it for restoration of all sorts of things. Medium grade is probably a bit harsh for what you want to do. It is really useful for removing wood grain that has raised from stripper or old damp without removing very much wood. Great if you are trying to preserve cartouches or stampings.
Just ventured on this thread, so some resurrection I'm afraid. I have a tank dated 10/56 also and it's similarly speculum. Anyone else??
@Muzzleflash, if I remember right the few 10/56 tanks have all been found in Australia. Where did you find yours ??
@Muzzleflash You bought it on the Bay of Evil, but where was the lantern from when you bought it? Tony
@Tony Press Crikey, I don't remember that! It was from the UK, as I haven't bought anything internationally from eBay since the good old days of pre-2006 (ish). eBay is indeed evil nowadays, but having been a member since near inception (1998); it used to be a positively wonderful place up until around 15-20 years back...
Had a look at this post on the October 1956 X246 and went to check my pot plant counter balance speculum plated Tilley X246 and it is dated October 1956. It was found in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) South Africa. Just found another one which as far as I can remember came from Durban South Africa.
