[Eliot Ness]

.........Whatever happened to Michael Katz?........

That's a good question Ron, I hadn't heard his name mentioned in about a year, and before that much longer. Last September there was a guy selling grille cloth at Kutztown in the other pavilion, but the patterns I recognized looked like they came from John and some others had a generic look to them. Later, in a casual conversation with Mary Okolowicz about the other vendor, Michael's name came up but I can't recall in exactly what context.

In light of John's announcement it puts a lot more significance on that other vendor and I'll be sure to pick his brain if he is there next month, just-in-case Michael is one of his suppliers. In John's last e-mail he mentioned that they would not be at Kutztown.

[Ron Ramirez]

Well, I see the vendors are gradually running out of patterns. Philco 1935-37 "V" and Philco "Ribbed" is gone. Radio Daze no longer has 70/90 cloth in whiskey, but have it in copper (used in early Model 60B, 89B, and 19B) although Grille Cloth Headquarters still lists the whiskey hue of 70/90 cloth.

I wonder if this will make the value of sets with good original cloth, or with accurate repro cloth, increase somewhat? After all, many sets that come on the market now that need cloth will not be able to get the proper replacement cloth for the near future, at least.

John, I'll bet you will find people pulling cloth out of those console cabinets at Kutztown before they get thrown onto the burn pile, if the cloth is any good at all. There's nothing wrong with reusing good cloth from an otherwise unusable cabinet. My 650B has "V" cloth from a junk 1937 Philco console; the cloth had a tear in it so it couldn't be used in a console any longer, but there was enough good cloth for use in the tombstone.

[Eliot Ness]

.....John, I'll bet you will find people pulling cloth out of those console cabinets at Kutztown before they get thrown onto the burn pile, if the cloth is any good at all.........

Ron, those cabinets get picked pretty clean, kind of like what happens to a baby back rib that lands on my dinner plate People are free to go up and pull anything they might need from a cabinet ranging from veneer to pulling the whole cabinet out.

There's nothing wrong with reusing good cloth from an otherwise unusable cabinet.

Before the 70/90 cloth came to market I vividly remember hauling back an old console cabinet from John Caperton's place in Louisville to use the cloth in one of my table sets. I made the mistake of washing it in some Woolite and it almost shrunk too much.

Now that grille cloth is a little harder to come by I plan to experiment with some chemical cleaning to help preserve what original cloth we have left. I'll be sure to document my process and report if it is successful.

[exray]

I did some panic buying myself and ordered nine 12x12 pieces, mostly generic stuff, so as to have some for future projects.

I don't know the economics of the biz but I fully suspect any potential new vendor will have to charge substantially more than John O did. Ouch.

[Arran]

Like I said the guys to talk to about reproducing grille cloth would be the same guys that reproduce, or at least retail, reproduction upholstery cloth for antique and classic cars, SMS in Oregon is one such outfit. The reproduction grille cloth wasn't that cheap in the first place, it was over $20 a running foot off of a 52'' roll for some of it, that's $60 a yard, so I think that they were pretty much charging what the market could bare already, any more then that and people start looking for substitutes. I've considered buying some at times but other then the Philcos and the occasional G.E or RCA set most of my sets used patterns of grille cloth that nobody reproduced anyhow. Even in cases where there was a replica cloth it wasn't economically feasble to order one, on a radio worth $40, $50, or $100 it isn't worth spending 1/2 that on a grille cloth. At least the templates for weaving the repro patterns exist, that will make it easier for the next guy to have them reproduced.
Regards
Arran

[wbaradio]

I contacted SMS Auto Fabrics via email regarding our radio grille cloth plight. I received a very prompt reply from Doug Pollock/SMS that this was "right up his alley" and he has the looms, yarn, and experience to complete the mission, all he needed was samples to evaluate. I have contacted and forwarded the email and SMS contact info to Mike S./Radio Daze asking him to put together samples and contact SMS. Radio Daze is actively pursuing a replacement vendor and were excited to hear about this potential source...

Arran....nice lead!

Britt Abbott
Chesapeake, VA

[Chicago Jimmy]

Excellent...That would be great! Nice job guys.

[exray]

Very Good, Britt! Thanks for taking the initiative. Hopefully it will work out. We'll brace for the pricing. I think John O had much of his fabric made up many years ago and probably had to make a very large investment to get started and that's why his prices seem relatively "inexpensive" these days. Yeah, we're kinda screwed on the little $20 sets that need a new dial, new cloth, new knobs along with normal repairs but there's a market out there that WILL pay to get good restoration materials for valuable radios.

Adios,
Bill

[TA Forbes]

Four thumbs up, Britt! You have done our hobby a great service!!

[DeckApe]

Well done! For some reason I wouldn't have the slightest compunction about kicking down $75 if need be to get the right cloth for a radio. It's something I would do for the love of the game, as it were.

[Arran]

I contacted SMS Auto Fabrics via email regarding our radio grille cloth plight. I received a very prompt reply from Doug Pollock/SMS that this was "right up his alley" and he has the looms, yarn, and experience to complete the mission, all he needed was samples to evaluate. I have contacted and forwarded the email and SMS contact info to Mike S./Radio Daze asking him to put together samples and contact SMS. Radio Daze is actively pursuing a replacement vendor and were excited to hear about this potential source...

Arran....nice lead!

Britt Abbott
Chesapeake, VA

I figured that might be a good one to check on, very good to hear that it sounds promising. If that one falls through, or even if it doesn't, there is another outfit called Original Automotive Interiors (can't remember their location) that does much the same thing. Both of these businesses have been in the business of reproducing and selling reproduction upholstery cloth for automobiles for decades, even for more obscure makes and models like a Hupmobile, a Graham Page, Kaisers, and stuff like that so they must have an economical way to produce fabric in smaller quantities. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if they could reproduce such fabric at a lower cost and in a greater variety since they are already set up to do so. While some may not mind paying $75 for a repro grille cloth the reality is that most will not, the same is true of automotive fabric because the interior is usually the last thing on the restoration list and last thing that everyone things of.
I think many in the antique radio hobby could take a lesson from the old car hobby, the length that some of those guys go to to reproduce a missing part indistinguishable from the original really shows the passion these guys have for their cars, but what I find amazing is that they usually find a way to do so at an economical price. You won't find silly things like blatently incorrect Philco decals staying on the market for years on end with the vendor unwilling to correct them, if it's wrong someone will correct it or the business will go elsewhere. To put it simply, there are more guys like Steve Davis and Dick Oliver then like Rock Sea Enterprises.
Regards
Arran

[Ron Ramirez]

I agree with Arran. I've bought enough cloth to take care of the radios I currently have that need cloth. If someone puts cloth back on the market, I won't pay $75 for a piece of cloth.

To put it simply, there are more guys like Steve Davis and Dick Oliver then like Rock Sea Enterprises.

You mean Radio Daze.

Actually, Mike Tobin at Rock-Sea corrected the PHILCO decal and sent me a few samples. (I just used the last sample a few days ago.) Unfortunately, this occurred at the time Mike was negotiating to sell out to Radio Daze, and for whatever reason, Radio Daze just kept producing the incorrect decal.

I am going to attempt to contact them again this week, and if they ignore me again, I am going to pursue other avenues. We need to get the proper decals into production, just as much as we need good (and reasonably priced) cloth.

This is where I have to tip my hat to Mark Oppat. He produces reproduction dial scales to replace both the translucent light brown and the later glass dial scales. The artwork on his is correct - the artwork on Radio Daze's "glass" (actually plexiglas) is not.

[Arran]

I agree with Arran. I've bought enough cloth to take care of the radios I currently have that need cloth. If someone puts cloth back on the market, I won't pay $75 for a piece of cloth.

To put it simply, there are more guys like Steve Davis and Dick Oliver then like Rock Sea Enterprises.

You mean Radio Daze.

Actually, Mike Tobin at Rock-Sea corrected the PHILCO decal and sent me a few samples. (I just used the last sample a few days ago.) Unfortunately, this occurred at the time Mike was negotiating to sell out to Radio Daze, and for whatever reason, Radio Daze just kept producing the incorrect decal.

I am going to attempt to contact them again this week, and if they ignore me again, I am going to pursue other avenues. We need to get the proper decals into production, just as much as we need good (and reasonably priced) cloth.

This is where I have to tip my hat to Mark Oppat. He produces reproduction dial scales to replace both the translucent light brown and the later glass dial scales. The artwork on his is correct - the artwork on Radio Daze's "glass" (actually plexiglas) is not.

Yes, Radio Daze too, but I assumed that the error occured with Rock Sea and was never corrected. However I was not too impressed by the dial scale I bought from Rock Sea for a Stromberg Carlson, while the artwork was correct the background colour was too light, while it does work it really is no better then a laminated colour photo copy. I bought one of the glass dials from Radio Daze, it was accurate and well done, why they have to reproduce their new ones on plexiglas is beyond me as plastic is more costly then real glass.
Regards
Arran

[DeckApe]

I bought one of the glass dials from Radio Daze, it was accurate and well done, why they have to reproduce their new ones on plexiglas is beyond me as plastic is more costly then real glass.

A totally uninformed guess from me suggests they may have had shipping troubles with the glass? Or making one fumble in the shop wipes out thousands of dollars in inventory? I know if I were the seller I would at least consider plex--I had a 40-180 chassis arrive in great shape, save for the broken dial glass.

[Phlogiston]

I put some of pattern 64 (Zenith) into my 12-S-568 about a year and a half ago. I was working on it today and noticed that it has lost about half of its color. It was not facing a window. Maybe a new manufacture can make the patterns more fade resistant.