Jedi Reali
Sr Member
Agreed about the dirt, pitting, rust, substantial and consistent throughout, leading me to think it's real too. Red button and glass eye should be easy to confirm or deny with more pics.
Before I begin my AHN build, is my graflex vintage?
- Thread starter JRHunter13
- Start date
JRHunter13
Member
I'll be adding more pics as soon as I have the ability. Probably tomorrow morning. I'd like to hear what you think and will probably tag everybody who has been helping me or is interested in seeing. Thank you for your observations and opinion! It helps me out a lot.
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JRHunter13
Member
I'll sniff it right now! Haha, describe the smell? Old metal?
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JRHunter13
Member
I'll preface this by saying that I have a deviated septum that seems to effect my sense of smell. So it absolutely smells funky. An odor I can't really describe. I haven't gone around smelling a lot of old battery compartments in my life, but I guess if I had been sniffing them, that's what I imagine they would've smelt like? Anyway, I noticed the stink of metal. But nothing suuuuper strong. Like a nasty old.... smell. Again, not sure how to describe it.
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JRHunter13
Member
JRHunter13
Member
New pictures posted!
JRHunter13
Member
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Jedi Reali
Sr Member
Excellent. It looks like you have early versions of both the red button and glass eye there. These are harder to find, and more desirable because it's generally suspected that the ANH Graflex was an early Folmer, and would have had these variations on it. On the red button you can see that the cuts in the knurling run high, slightly above the ridges and onto the sloped edge of the top. The glass eye surround has a sharp, flat drop to the glass inside rather than a curve, and a duller finish than the more common later versions. If you haven't decided which conversion to do yet I'd highly recommend making an ANH saber out of this. Nice find.
JRHunter13
Member
That's fantastic news!!! Thanks for the information! Yes, as the tittle of my thread suggests I am indeed doing an ANH build and I guess I'm in luck, as you have suggested, as it seems I've obtained the G R A F L E X widely believed by the community to be the one used in ANH. (More specifically was that one believed to have no patent #? That's the impression I was under.) still to own an older folmer I couldn't be happier!
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Jedi Reali
Sr Member
Haha, good, I'm glad you're happy with it!
I am also under the impression that it would have had no patent number, and an earlier version clamp, neither of which yours has. (The tell on the clamp is the head of the pin on the lever.) Parts on this thing could've been swapped 70 years ago though. It's still a great piece for an ANH saber. :thumbsup
JRHunter13
Member
Haha, good, I'm glad you're happy with it!
I am also under the impression that it would have had no patent number, and an earlier version clamp, neither of which yours has. (The tell on the clamp is the head of the pin on the lever.) Parts on this thing could've been swapped 70 years ago though. It's still a great piece for an ANH saber. :thumbsup
Probably as close as it's going to get! Or I will find!
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JRHunter13
Member
Still here listening to what anybody else has to say!
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I don't any detailed photos of my Parks, and I've sold them off so unfortunately I can't take new pics but I did study them in detail when I had them.
Based on the new photos you posted it certainly appears you've got a vintage Graflex.
I will say this, the Parks were so close to perfect replicas that it's really hard to tell a Parks from a real one. The screw was a red flag because a photographer would probably not have removed the rivet/pin and it's a bear to remove (you usually need a punch or nail driver to tap it out). That bunny ear screw is really curious.
The original Parks first came out over 10 years ago, and they were made of the same stuff (brushed nickel over brass, injected black plastic, copper, etc..) that anyone who paid $150 back in the day and wants to make $600-$800-$1000 on selling it as a 'real' Graflex I don't think it's unreasonable to think they wouldn't take the time to study the wear/dirt/corrosion on real ones and weather the Parks to pass off as real. It happens all the time with antiques.
Can you post a photo of the underside of the clamp lever ? The Parks definitely looks different, although it can be filed and polished to look like a real one.
Based on the new photos you posted it certainly appears you've got a vintage Graflex.
I will say this, the Parks were so close to perfect replicas that it's really hard to tell a Parks from a real one. The screw was a red flag because a photographer would probably not have removed the rivet/pin and it's a bear to remove (you usually need a punch or nail driver to tap it out). That bunny ear screw is really curious.
The original Parks first came out over 10 years ago, and they were made of the same stuff (brushed nickel over brass, injected black plastic, copper, etc..) that anyone who paid $150 back in the day and wants to make $600-$800-$1000 on selling it as a 'real' Graflex I don't think it's unreasonable to think they wouldn't take the time to study the wear/dirt/corrosion on real ones and weather the Parks to pass off as real. It happens all the time with antiques.
Can you post a photo of the underside of the clamp lever ? The Parks definitely looks different, although it can be filed and polished to look like a real one.
Nevermind, I forgot you posted a pic of the lever in the first post. That lever looks legit to me and not a replica.
JRHunter13
Member
Should I post more close up shots in good lighting of the replaced screw and the bunny ears? Would it help?
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Lichtbringer
Master Member
If i would want to fake a Graflex for max profit, i would use clamp, red button, glasseye, additional bunnyears and rivet from my partboxes. Maybe even combine the replica body with a real black insert - all parts that anyone would have after building a Vader ROTJ stunt (and more parts after years of collecting).
Even buying a 2cell for parts, add them to the replica body could make a 3 cell that fools many buyers. Additional sell the real leftovers from the 2cell and the replica parts to a saber builder. With that actions someone could easily double the spended money for a nice profit.
I don´t think more pics would really help. At some point you just have to believe.
Even buying a 2cell for parts, add them to the replica body could make a 3 cell that fools many buyers. Additional sell the real leftovers from the 2cell and the replica parts to a saber builder. With that actions someone could easily double the spended money for a nice profit.
I don´t think more pics would really help. At some point you just have to believe.
JRHunter13
Member
It seems to me if they were really going all out, completely all out to make a flawless fake, then why would they leave the screw in the place where they could have easily swapped a rivet? After all of the help from you guys I think that I'm just going to have to deal with never truly knowing. I didn't post here because I thought it was fake, I came here to make sure it wasn't. Instead I ended up gaining a massive amount of knowledge from your help. So, I believe that it is truly a vintage G R A F L E X that broke at some point in history and was repaired with a strange screw by who knows. Maybe a normal person, photographer, antique shop owner, or a master graflex replica charlatan.
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JRHunter13
Member
Still here curious to hear what other people think...
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scottjua
Master Member
Dude... this is totally and positively 100% REAL. I'm even leaning toward that being the original rivet that MIGHT have been slotted in the attempt to remove it...
Show me a pic of the side where it sits behind the bunny ears. Also... TRY to unscrew it...
One thing I've seen is people used a punch, screw driver, whatever... to pound rivets back in to mushroom them out to be tighter. The loose rattle could be annoying for photographers.
That's the ONLY suspect part. The rest... don't worry about it at all. 100% I say again ONE HUNDRED PERCENT REAL GENUINE G R A F L E X
Show me a pic of the side where it sits behind the bunny ears. Also... TRY to unscrew it...
One thing I've seen is people used a punch, screw driver, whatever... to pound rivets back in to mushroom them out to be tighter. The loose rattle could be annoying for photographers.
That's the ONLY suspect part. The rest... don't worry about it at all. 100% I say again ONE HUNDRED PERCENT REAL GENUINE G R A F L E X
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