rotary hardware, reissued.

estate sales, charity shops, forgotten storerooms. each handset arrives damaged — cracked housings, dead internals, decades of dust. the phone doesn't matter yet. the bones do.

everything comes apart. cord, dial, handset cradle, internal wiring. the housing is what we keep. anything salvageable goes back in later. the rest is documented and discarded.

80 → 120 → 240 → 400 grit. old paint, old lacquer, old filler. done by hand, no machine — you feel the material change. corners stay sharp, seams stay clean.

two coats of etching primer, sanded back between each. fixes micro-scratches, seals the bakelite. this is the coat nobody sees, and the one that matters most.

three to five coats, depending on colour density. each coat flashed off before the next. colour is mixed by hand to the session's brief — nothing comes from a rattle can.

gloss, satin, or matte — specified per handset. two coats minimum. the lacquer unifies colour inconsistencies and gives the surface its final feel. cured for 72 hours before touch.

original internals out. new wiring threaded through the existing channels. a small electret capsule is mounted in the earpiece housing. short cable run to a ¼-inch TS jack at the base.

connections made by hand under magnification. tested across multiple interfaces before sign-off. each handset is numbered, photographed, and logged before it ships.