one more pic of the edge on the bass drum

Hi Tom,

Cool pictures! Hardbopman is right on about the strainer. It's a patent date of February 9, 1909 (see pic 1). The number 34 stamped on the reverse is just the die number used by the foundry who made the parts.

Those shells are making me waiver on whether or not these are Stone drums though. I've never seen a Stone shell with vertical plies like the bass drum. Most Stone models featured single ply shells with re-rings (pic #2 below). The exception is the Master-Model drums and the shallower separate tension drums after 1923 when they began building 5/8" thick three ply shells (pic #3 below). And it would be odd for Stone to turn out shells with no stampings, labels, or other marks at all.

Those snare beds are unlike Stone's too. Stone commonly used wide, gradual (and often very uneven . . .) snare beds (pic 4).

The fact that the strainer it isn't marked STONE makes me suspicious as well. I have four Stone drums which use that strainer and they are all stamped with the company name. Stone and others sold this strainer separately so the part itself wasn't necessarily proprietary. And not all examples were stamped with a brand name.

So here are my theories: These could be Stone's entry level drums - the Victory models (sometimes cataloged with no badges which would make sense here) - the written descriptions of which make no mention of the shell make up. A 1923 press release describes them only as being made "of well-seasoned stock" which is "carefully inspected before it leaves the factory". Another possibility is that this was a build out by a third party using the same hardware that Stone used which is entirely plausible considering that Stone and others sold their hardware separately in those days.

Ramblings complete. Keep us posted on the clean up!

-Lee

I finally got some time today so I started to strip the shells. I finished the snare shell and should have the bass and 4 hoops finished tomorrow. The hardware has had the paint stripped and is soaking in dawn to try and remove the rust.

Here is a pic of my helper with the stripped shell. I'll post some more when I'm done stripping the rest.

Hi Tom,

Looking good! And it appears you have some quality help in the shop with you!

Assuming the shells were a natural color to begin with, the original finish was likely either waxy orange shellac (-> early '20s and before), or clear lacquer (mid '20s and later). The modern water based finishes weren't around back then. You can pretty much put whatever you want on there now though.

Keep everyone posted as the resto moves along!

-Lee

I was able to "finish" stripping the bass shell and the hoops. The Bass is pretty well done but the hoops could use a bit more elbow grease. The blue paint was a pain in the backside and doesn't seem to want to be completely removed with the citrus stripper and after wash. I was planning on leaving everything with a natural finish, either a clear coat or shellac, but I'm now thinking I may paint the rims as the stripping process was way more work than I hoped for on the rims and they still have a blue hue to them.

That looks like an old-school mahogany/poplar/maple lay-up on the bass drum. What I can't figure out is; why did they run the grain vertically on the inside ply? Does anybody know if the central re-ring is a standard feature of Stone drums? I'm not too familiar with the company's drums myself.

Nice job on those shells! Hard to get 'good help' these days, you're a lucky man. :D

John

Good work with the stripping! I know how much work that takes.

I'm still not sure they are Stone shells though. Stone made mostly single ply maple shells and when they did start making multi plys, they were all maple and not cross laminated. Walberg & Auge is a more likely bet. Anyway...

RE: the blueish hoops, if all the color wont come off, you could always paint them black. Some drums of the 1910s and '20s were produced that way. A darker stain than the shells might be another option.

-Lee

For what it's worth the Eames Drum Company in Saugus Mass, has the original equipment bought from Lawrence Stone. Mr Eames sold the CO to Joe Mac. If you go to his website http://www.eamesdrumshells.com/ and send Joe an email he may be able to give a bit of history and advice on the drums. He is a great guy..

+1 on JoeMac! He was always good to me when I was in Boston and was of great help back when I began collecting Stone drums. He even repaired and refinished a Stone drum for me once.

-Lee

I contacted Joe Mac and will be sending some picture for him to take a look at later tonight.

Lee's Walberg & Auge comment made me take a look at a 30" bass drum that I own last night. When I got it around 1999, I was told that it was a 1910/20's Walberg & Auge, although there are no badge or paper tags to identify it. The W&A drum seem to be quite similar in construction as the "Stone" bass drum. Both inner plys run vertical and both have rerings (3 on the stone 5 on the W&A). The spot where both outer plys end has a a lip as it has not been sanded down. The hoops on both bass drums look the same to me. I'll try and get some pics of both up in the next couple of days.

The snare shell is a 3ply maple (my best guess) .250" thick shell with round edges.

What I feel that I know is that the hardware is Stone hardware but Neither shell is consistent with Stone drums so they are likely something else.

Walberg & Auge would certainly be a possibility since I know they made hardware for a lot of drum manufactures and had deals with those manufactures to use their hardware on W&A drums. I'll have to dig a little bit further down this path.

tom