Side Project - Antique Trombone

This page is dedicated to a personal side project; a pre-1920’s Hawkes and Son Excelsior Sonorous Trombone. I found this trombone on Ebay for $30, and had no idea what I would be getting. It was worth every penny.

 

When this trombone arrived, the slide would not move and had a hole in the outer tube at the stocking. This horn had no case, and was pretty beat up. There is no slide lock or bell lock ring, and the cork barrels are tiny. But every ferrule or reinforced part was engraved with beautiful detail. The bore size is .450”, which is the smallest trombone I have ever seen.

To begin, I gave it the standard swab out and chem. flush in both simple green and phosphoric acid. I dipped some areas in sliver dip to remove a bit of the tarnish. Once it was cleaned, I could see the extent of the damage, and how much of the sliver plating was missing.

I began doing dent work. Starting with the main tuning slide, I removed the crook and the decorative guard so that I could access every dent. Then, using a series of dent balls and crook dent tools, I smoothed the crook out as much as possible, finishing it by burnishing it using the C burnisher. I then soldered the rib back on and rebuilt the slide.

I removed the bell from the bell assembly and began to attack the dents on it. I first roughed out the bell buckle, then moved to the dent machine. This was my first experience using a Ferree’s dent machine. It is a tricky beast to get use to, but it did a good job. It removed many of the dents from the stem and bell flare. It scratched the plating a little bit, but no more than it was already scratched.

Once the bell was reattached, I turned my attention to the areas that were cracked. I was trying to keep as much of the original material as possible, so instead of replacing the tube, I patched it using a larger tube that I annealed and cut a slit into. I first flattened out as much of the damage as possible using a trombone slide mandrel and a dent hammer. The patch was wired on and soldered in place and I burnished the inside of the damage using an expander. It wasn’t the best moving slide in the world, but it moved.

Inner tubes on slides today are drawn tubes with chrome plating. This was not the case with this trombone. The inner tubes were made from brass tube and it had nickel-sliver stockings soldered on. This caused the stockings to wear over time, and the tubes were very flexible. So in my attempts to align and straighten the tubes, I managed to break off one of the stockings.

To replace it, I used a Getzen inner-upper main tuning slide tube and turned it down to size. This gave me the opportunity to enlarge the tube slightly to account for the wear. I cleaned it up on the lathe and soldered it in place. After giving it a buff, I was surprised at how much the action improved. I finished of the handslide by buffing the inside of the outers with motor oil and Tripoli.

After the trombone was reassembled, I gave it a thorough polish. To completely finish it off, I would have to get it re-plated. I experimented with spot plating, but it would not take. If I ever have the extra money, I can send it away to get finished. In the mean time, I purchased a period case from an antique store, cleaned it up and put the trombone away. It is an interesting piece, but not something I would ever play on stage. For more information, leave me a comment or email me at airbandrepair@gmail.com.