I’ve moved on to the “rail” bit of my restoration of the Kodak 2D. I removed the hinge, applied my homemade paint stripped, scraped off the gunk, then sanded. Sanded again, and then some more. I have no idea what stain Kodak used back in the day, but I’m beginning to hate that red wine coloured dust! I sanded out the gouge you may just make out in the side of the “big bit”, there was also two rather unsightly holes in the bottom of the smaller part, not that anyone would see them there, but I filled and sanded those too!
I think when these cameras were manufactured the application of the stain was rather sloppy. When I sand down to a certain level I can detect splashes, also it is VERY dark in places while lighter in others. I can’t sand too much, otherwise things will become un-even, my patience wains after a while too – truth be told.
I applied two coats of the Yew satin, then two coats of the satin varnish, cleaned and polished the brass a bit, reassembled and this is what I’ve ended up with…
Even though the smaller part is much darker, I’m happy with the result. The dark bit will be covered by the main part of the camera anyway, in fact I wondered if this bit was deliberately made darker for less light reflection?
I also spent a bit of time doing “internet archaeology”. So a bit of history. It seems that this camera is a “Eastman View Camera No 2D” There seems to have been an original version of this commonly known as the “Century”, I wonder if it started production about 1900? There is an interesting read here about the variations. It seems that the “D” bit means “dark” – certainly some bits are!!
It also appears that these were manufactured “for” Kodak, rather than by them, by the Folmer Graflex Corporation, in Rochester, New York. Hidden away out of sight there is a serial number (407353). On various websites/forums and searches I discovered that apparently Graflex made cameras quite happily and although giving them serial numbers, no-one bothered to record them for any reason! That was until one accountant decided that it would be a good idea, so purchased a single ledger to do so. Luckily the numbers just seem to run consecutively across all cameras. The 2-D was made from Dec 1921 to Feb 1950, not a bad run! The first post I came across was a rather vague mention that a camera (446784) was made in the 40’s. Helpful, but I wanted more accuracy! I found a post about an 8×10 version (442899) that claimed to be 1946-1948 – getting closer! Then I found SouthBristolView Grafexchange . Here I found that (401843) before mine was made in 1946, and that (410196) was made after mine in 1947. Then gold dirt – rather precisely I found record of an 8×10 version (407056) VERY close to mine was “completed on 23/9/46 and was number 283 of a batch of 300 8×10’s“.
So after half an hour of internet trawling I’m happy to say that my camera is a Eastman (Folmer Graflex) View Camera 2-D 5×7, manufactured late 1946. Next year it will be 80!
In the next instalment I will tackle the horror story that is the “front standard”!
S.H.O.U.T. 