The overall condition seemed
ok. The shutter was seized, as expected, but everything else seemed in
good condition.
When I opened the camera, I was
surprised to see that the chassis was made out of red wood.
The body is made out of aluminium and it’s covered with thick leather. Serial number 201669
I could not unlock the shutter.
There is a small lever on the top right side of the shutter, which,
once pressed, should release the shutter turning it clockwise.
I dismantled the shutter and then I realized that the blades of the shutter are bent. I removed the shutter blades and then I saw that the diaphragm blades were broken. Somebody has tried to clean the lens through the shutter and has wrecked the whole thing. I finally was able to remove the shutter. The lock was bent and I could not release it.
I repaired the diaphragm by
squeezing the blades between two metal rods. It works. The blades are
now flat, even if a couple of them are cracked, the whole thing opens
and closes and the opening is perfectly round.
The shutter blades were stuck
in hardened oil. I cleaned it and soaked it on alcohol. The base of the
shutter and the metal ring that holds the blades are rusted and I
polished it.
I straightened the blades with
tweezers and I put the blades back in place. To stick the blades to the
ring, I soaked them in oil. Once the shutter assembled, I soaked it for
a night on alcohol and dried it over a radiator.
The front plate of the shutter
was polished
When putting back the shutter
in place, when I was closing the camera, I heard a loud BANG and one of
the springs that holds the camera open was loose. One of the studs that hold the
springs has given up after nearly a hundred years of work.
I did a new stud out of brass.
To do the rivet on the back of the stud, I used a dentist tool to drill
a small hole on the middle of the stud.
The mirror of the viewer was in
a very sorry state. I cut and installed a new one.
The leather was very dry and was nourished with shoe polish
The finished camera