you have a few things to decide here, i would keep the natural finish, go find a good stain match or have a custom one made and re stain it, what was the hardware that it came with gold, nickel, chrome? i would put it back factory correct, get only real replacement parts no re pro parts, the rim clips are around on ebay etc, is the shell in round?

That's really gonna be a great piece when done!!

Did you fellas say it was early, mid, or late 20s,... or pre-20s?

I was thinking a natural finish. The hardware is nickel and the drum is round. Any thoughts on what product to finish it with? BTW, I have a lead on some clips...

Alright cool, glad it is in round, you need to have the hardware re plated back to nickel, 2nd, we in my town have a world class wood store, so i have a lot of different stains i can use and choose from. varithane stain is one i use a lot, but you may be able to get it at lowes or home depot, take the shell with you and try to match the original stain, you'll have to remove the badge from the shell, and remember your prep work is the most important thing to stain or painting or recovering, get that wood smooth and dust free!!Yes Sir

Any hints on how to get the badge off without compromising the grommet?

you may be able to get it off without trashing it, but old brass like that is fairly brittle,needle nose pliers, but don't touch the shell at all, take the pliers and gently roll it away from the shell. you can get grommets,i have a way to age them perfectly, if i can help let me know, this stuff is easier to do than you may think, if you have worked with wood before, it helps a lot, also on the question about the black spot on the shell, that comes from pressure on that part of the shell over time,seen them many times on old shells,

Not sure that's possible. However, the grommet is the least valuable thing on the drum, and you can't refurb the shell while the badge is there. So grind off the grommet's inner flange with a Dremel tool, and when you're all done remount the badge with a new grommet. AFAIK you have no choice.

Hard to say without seeing the hardware. But since you're going to re-sell and presumably want to keep costs down, it seems prudent to at least try removing the rust and polishing what's left before you decide.

Removing rust with electrolysis is easy and the results are impressive. Here are before and after pics from my first experiment, a Ludwig & Ludwig strainer from a drum just a little older than yours.

Before:

[Attachment: 12140]

After:

[Attachment: 12141]

[Attachment: 12142]

If you have a bucket and a car-battery charger, you can do this. There are tutorials on YouTube. The process takes about a day. The only manual labor is a few minutes at the end with a wire brush removing the residue.

I think this is an excellent avenue to pursue, yeah you got to clean the parts first,you will need to clean all metal parts, to evaluate,the cost,and time factor in this drum, and are you going to play it?, look at it? or, re sell it,?