Strap buttons

[wes williams]

I've found this thread very interesting, so thanks to everybody who has contributed. But just to give you a even wider range of thoughts - Rock and Edwards father was a cheese merchant, and Rock's earlier adverts listed the family home address. Any chance that this button material could be in some way connected to the cheese  industry ?

[Myrtle's cook]

On the subject of the material for the buttons, I realised where I had also seen this delamination of a base grey metal before - that was on forged versions of silver coinage in the Victorian period (in a previous life I was a curator of antiquities and numismatics in a large museum). These were usually made in clay moulds, using impressions of genuine shillings, half crowns etc, and cast with with molten metal often derived from melting cheap cutlery (based on contemporary accounts of some forger's trials). Whilst usually referred to as 'white metal', some of these have been found to be a zinc alloy, others to be pewter. These would then be coated with silver paint, or dipped to provide a surface enrichment that would at least for a short time suggest silver. There are a few examples illustrated in this article by Dr Adrian Marsden PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

[Duncan Luddite]

"I think yours, @Duncan Luddite, is actually the same as C-230.  C-231 has very simple drilled fretwork. "
Oops, my bad
Nice work on repairing the frets, @BrokenBox

[BrokenBox]

Thank you @Duncan Luddite. There are several failed attempts on the garage floor! 😊

[Clive Thorne]

On 4/17/2025 at 12:14 PM, wes williams said:

I've found this thread very interesting, so thanks to everybody who has contributed. But just to give you a even wider range of thoughts - Rock and Edwards father was a cheese merchant, and Rock's earlier adverts listed the family home address. Any chance that this button material could be in some way connected to the cheese  industry ?

Does it taste like cheese?

[fred v]

My Rock Chidley Baritone buttons. Don't know if they are original or not. Looks like the chrome or nickel finish has worn off.

[BrokenBox]

That looks a lot nicer then my Rock Chidley, @fred v. Mine is a budget model; I think all the posher ones had metal strap buttons. And I can only dream of five fold bellows!  I have a question; your finger rest looks like bare brass.  Was it originally covered in leather? Some of them seem too have been; mine aren't but look like they may have been once.

[fred v]

3 hours ago, BrokenBox said:

That looks a lot nicer then my Rock Chidley, @fred v. Mine is a budget model; I think all the posher ones had metal strap buttons. And I can only dream of five fold bellows!  I have a question; your finger rest looks like bare brass.  Was it originally covered in leather? Some of them seem too have been; mine aren't but look like they may have been once.

They are not covered and can't tell if the ever were. on my two Wheatstones I have glued a strip of leather in the inside of the pinkie rest. It doesn't slip as much now. Worth doing.