Zen I have A's from 50's to 70's and none of those have such prominent hammering. I have an 80's sabian HH 20" thin ride about the same weight and it looks and sounds very different.
Thanks mbira. I was just checking how much you have in your reference collection. Bill H says mid 50s which I presume narrows it down to the 3 stamps he refers to collectively as "Large Stamps". Only one has the hollow lettering for Zildjian.
[ame]http://black.net.nz/cym2013/ZDatingZildjianCymbals.pdf[/ame]
Should I just leave all the scratches? My thinking is that because they down from the bell to the outside and not with the lathing that they might interfere with the vibrations and it could sound even better if I could polish them out.
I would leave it alone myself. The more you try and polish scratches out the more you reduce the tonal grooves and turn it into a "brilliant" finish. That may change the sound a bit, but not towards the original sound. For me, original sound trumps "better" sound. Otherwise why go for vintage cymbals in the first place?