Today I finally got my eBay come uppance, if you will. I finally pushed the envelope a bit too far, hoping to once again turn a sow's ear into a silk purse when it comes to buying morse code keys and semi-automatic bugs.
The key I thought would clean up into something pretty nice turned out to be as bad as it looked in the photos — no, actually, it's WORSE than it looked.
Evidently this key spent quite a bit of time submerged in something corrosive — I would think perhaps salt water, given the fact this seller is in Florida.
The base, yes, it's all rust. The rust is from the chrome that's peeled off. Even the chrome on the entire upper parts of the key is pitted and shows evidence of corrosion. Man, I figured the upper parts would clean up. I don't have the key in front of me, but I'm telling you it's just bad.
There's no blaming the seller, he had plenty of photos showing how crappy the key looked. I just couldn't believe that all the parts of the key could be as corroded as they looked in the photos. Well, I found they were!
With that said, I think that given some clean-up work, the key's going to work ok. The contacts need cleaning, and even the pivots need to have the grit and salt flushed out. But overall, I'm pretty sure I can make this key work 100 percent. It's just going to look really, really bad. As the old saying goes, “you can't polish a turd.” This key my friends is a turd!
There's not much to actually salvage from it either. All the hardware shows corrosion, which is a pity. This 1958 bug certainly looks rode hard and put up wet. I've not tried the key, but I think I will tomorrow. I'm not expecting much, but that's fine too. It may wind up being a good demonstrator. If nothing else, I could paint the base or use it as my guinea pig for my new/old paint job.
STRAIGHT KEY MADNESS
OK, it's not all THAT bad, but yeah, I've picked up a few known straight keys, just for grins.
The first one I purchased is a key that is quite old. It was manufactured by the L.S. Brach Mfg. Co. of Newark, N.J., as a spark key in World War I for the U.S. Signal Corp. The key is a J-5, not to be confused with the J-5-A, an key that was produced during and after World War II.
This key was intended for use aboard aircraft, and saw service from World War I through the late 1930s or so. Sometime during the 1930s or 1940, the nearly identical J-5-A was produced for the services. The key is considered a “flameproof” key, a feature that was critically important on both planes and ships.
The second straight key I bought was an unusual key in that it had no markings on it. It is mounted on what appears to be a homebrew base of a thin sheet of lead sandwiched between two pieces of bakelite.
The body of the key itself is brass; the keying lever appears to be copper, or at least copper colored. The terminal nuts are color coded red and black.
This isn't a homemade key … or if it is, it was crafted by someone who was a very good machinist. The adjusments are precision and the action is excellent. A rounded bakelite knob finishes off the key. I'm so accustomed to a Navy-style knob that the key's knob threw me off a bit. I'm still a little hit-or-miss when sending with it, but the key has a great feel to it. Much more solid than any of my other straight keys … but of course, it outweighs them by a considerable amount.
Tonight I removed the key from the base, and confirmed the base is homebrew. There's no inscription or stamp anywhere on the key. The detail of its manufacture make it clear it was either expertly handcrafted or mass produced as a quality key. I've not seen another like it, but that doesn't mean there aren't 2 million of them out there.
In the end, I guess you win some and lose some … I've had a streak of good luck that's gone way overdue … I suspect I'll somehow either get my money back out of the key or use it for a worthwhile use. Time will tell.
That's all for me tonight, it's time to hit the rack.
73 es GB … CU AGN …. de KY4Z SK … dit dit …