*mugatu’s HUNTING TIPS #1:
I am transplanting this into this full OB1 thread in order to help those of you who may be seeking but have not found the elusive correct Armitage Shanks handwheels:
RPF Member JamieCarter asked:
- So I can tell when trawling eBay exactly what I'm looking for? Can you tell from the exterior? No AS logo?
- I feel I just jizzed some money for nothing.
- So avoid anything with the AS logo?
It is possible to tell from the outside, besides the cap logo, if it is the absolutely correct type/era handwheel. In my real parts hunting adventures, the defining characteristics that tell me if it is the right handwheel (from the outside) are:
A. The sharpness of the cube lines.
It can often be difficult to notice, particularly if the photos are not in focus, and/or are not relatively close up to the handwheels. The reality is when I have been hunting AS wheels, I have found about 70% of the time the photos are not close up and 90% of the time are not in focus as the people selling them usually are of the mindset that the handwheels are simply old and dirty used junk that they have just spent the last 20-30 years looking at every single time they went to use the restroom. While hopeful that some buyer will actually want to buy their gross, bacteria-laden, calcified “refuse farm” handwheels, there is also the reality that (other than this one rare case caused by Obi-Wan’s lightsaber) most people don't look forward to the idea of publicly displaying the results of what decades of their restroom usage does to handwheels in, magnified on the internet for all to see.
It is a sad fact for the hunter (us), but the longer you search you will see that you are probably more likely to find an in-focus photo of the Loch Ness Monster than you are an in-focus photo of the correct Armitage handwheels for sale on the internet.
On the rare occassion that you do find some crispy pics, but the top of the handwheel is still not visible, the Delta logo handwheel (which is the commonly found late-era/incorrect version) does not appear to have cube lines that are quite as sharp as the cube lines on the correct early-era handwheels.
B. There is no overall taper to the cubes of the correct era/logo handwheels. The Delta logo handwheels taper slightly toward one end of the cube ring (usually from the bottom of the cube ring to the top, although this can be the reverse depending on how the cube ring is inserted over the base cylinder portion of the handwheel), with the bottom being larger or flared out more than the diameter at the top. Again, once you have the two versions in your hands, it is obvious, but in a blurry photo, not so easy to detect.
C. The upper shelf on the correct era handwheel is curved/rounded...
...whereas incorrect handwheels have either only a very small abrupt curve at the very edge of the top portion OR there is essentially just a flat shelf.
The flat shelf type is generally found as having a black color indice ring instead of blue or red. This is the least correct version (in my mind) as the shelf is the most blatant difference making it the easiest to detect. INTERESTINGLY, I have found that the black indice ring version does however share an identical non-tapering cube ring with the desireable correct handwheel that we seek out but the Delta logo cube ring is not interchangeable. Thus, if you DO stumble upon the black indice ring version rather than the 100% correct version, it should still be considered a “win”.
As to whether you’ve thrown your money away or if you should avoid the Delta logo version altogether, only you can make that decision as it is part of the prop collector’s dilemma and part of the philosophy that only you can dictate. Is a slightly not correct yet real found part version of the pommel better than a “looks correct” replica of the real part? Even though it may look completely correct, isn’t it actually
less correct since it is 100% replica and 0% real found part? Only you can answer that, for yourself. It is something many of us struggle with and go back and forth on for a long time.
I’ve always felt that a Delta logo handwheel is better to have than a replica handwheel, IF one is going for a real found parts prop replica. At that same time, I know that ultimately, in the end, I will probably be bothered by the part not being absolutely 100% the correct real part, and it will bother me to the point that given the opportunity I will “need” to upgrade to the correct piece. Luckily, not everyone feels this way. It is probably more sane to not be this way.
Just remember, it’s easy to be dissatisfied with a piece once you have it in hand, but there are always ten more people without that incorrect-but-closer-than-anything-else piece that would want to have it.
Good luck hunting.