This is probably one for Zenstat. His reference site is amazing. Great site I visit often might want to check that also.

Wayne

Nice! Hope he can help :) I think I have the date down (1980's) but I have searched and searched all the zildjians in that time frame and can't find any that have the smooth outer edge. All of them have lathing all the way to the edge....confusing :(

Is it okay to leave that sort of tarnishing on a cymbal? I have some Paiste hats with that sort of gunky coppery look and am wondering if it wrecks the cymbal. I don't like to wash cymbals if I don't have to.

I've never seen a Z with an edge like that ardrummer. Hmmmm.

-Doug

Some people actually prefer "dirty" cymbals. It can darken the sound which is sought after by some. Only reason I decided to clean these is to match the other brilliant finishes cymbals I have.

If it didn't have the stamp on it I wouldn't know it was a Zildjian, lol.

I'm not really up on the lower lines Zildjian produce, but those fit the pattern of Scimitar or Amir series. Although there were some specific trademark stamps, some of these lower lines have a standard A Zildjian trademark stamp. Here is that 80s CO stamp like yours on an Amir (click on link)

Amir with CO stamp

and here is a Scimitar hat which is smooth (no tonal grooves) on the underside. It has the A Zildjian 70s stamp. This might be a different version of the Scimitar series from yours. I have also seen one which had the same lathing style as yours and that quarter inch near the outer edge which lacks tonal grooves. This style of lathing occurs on other Avedis Zildjian cymbals occasionally, but it might be a consistent feature of whatever your hats are. I don't know.

Scimitar ink

Scimitar smooth bottom

Scimitar 70s stamp

Scimitar tops

The first two links are to a different pair of hats than the second two links. In terms of color, the early Scimitar series was a Zinc Alloy (MS63) so not B8 or B20. These were produced from 1986-1998. There is information on all models 1970-2017 for Avedis Zildjian here (thanks to Paul Francis):

Avedis Zildjian 1970-2017 Model Introductions

There are at least three different Scimitar series. And note that on present evidence what we call the "70s stamp" was in use during the 80s and the early 90s as well. Some day I might get a chance to sort out the lower lines as well as the different stamps in use from the 80s onward to the laser stamps. Progress is slow.

Wow...very informational! I appreciate the time it took for your reply! Do you have a picture of the the scimitar with the unlathed edge? I have searched and searched and can't find one. This hi-hat actually sounds pretty good...doesn't sound entry level :)

I've been composing and adding links as I was going because my internet connection goes down a few times a day and I can lose things.

Check out this link: Scimitar tops and look closely at the upper cymbal in the photo. That's got the no tonal grooves at the edge on the upper cymbal but not the lower one. I'm not sure which is the top vs bottom of the hi hat pairing, so when I say upper vs lower I'm just talking position in the picture. Given the variation in lathing style at the outer edge it's hard to say whether the lack of tonal grooves is just variation or means something about model. It might also be that it was done on just the top or bottom hat of a pair.

Almost looks like they got the lathing off center and that is why it is off. Not as pronounced like my cymbal. Very interesting. The coloring does look kinda like a planet z cymbal I cleaned one time...could be that it is the ms63