I just became the proud owner of an Ebony RSW45 from Robert White. I was wonderi ng if anyone had any good information about how I should care for the Ebony wood and the titanium?
I just became the proud owner of an Ebony RSW45 from Robert White. I was wonderi ng if anyone had any good information about how I should care for the Ebony wood and the titanium?
Matthew: Don't take it appart, dont bath it, dust it, otherwise leave it alone unless it goes wrong.
its a fine camera
Robin
You could send me the camera for a free evaluation of the required maintenance and suggested intervals.
This evaluation can often take three to five years, and would require frequent use of the camera. Please send film as well, I have my own holders and meter.
First thing to do is to announce on the Internet that you own one. Why don't you mention how much you paid for it, too?
Two suggested methods:
Film and plenty of it. Think of any scarring as badges of honor. This works if you are a photographer.
metal and wood polish rubbed in with soft cloths. This approach works if you are a furniture collector.
I know how you feel, a couple of the others don't 'get it', you've just unpacked you're new 'pride 'n joy', and you're excited like I was by my first LF camera. Somebody doesn't like it, so what.
I'm both a Photographer and Woodworker, get a can of Liberon furniture paste wax, the best, cost $13.90 and I've been working on the same can for 5 yrs!
Use the wax on the metal and wood, it's more protection than you think, and whatever else scratches, nick, and/or marks you get, you get, but if it's made out of wood and you care about it, use the wax.
Anything made out of wood is only as strong as it joints. Joinery with the right glue proprerly done, is almost as strong as the wood itself, and supplemental fasteners like screws are secondary. The enemy of bare wood and it joints in a workpiece is the sun/UV, and temperature/humidity swings, which causes expansion and contraction in both the wood and joints.
Anything made out of wood and its joinery tends to get torn up not from use but from expansion and contraction which can cause the joints to fail. In an effort to combat all of this, any combination of stains, Danish oils, Shellacs(french polish), urethanes, and Spar varnishes are used.
Spar varnish among these has the ability to flex with the wood as it expands and contracts, and is used on a workpiece that has to deal with being outside. Even though these overcoats can look like hard glass none of them are complete moisture barriers.
Your wax is supplemental protection moisturewise and its biggest advantage is that it's simple, renewable, and cheap, and it cannot hurt and usually helps protect whatever finish the manufacturer has on a workpiece.
I went through all this technical 'macaroni' to emphasize to Matthew that what will tear up a workpiece isn't necessarily use, but the elements, that's why you use the wax.
When my Grandfather, who was a carpenter, died, no adult in my family had sense enough to save his tools. The old craftsmen not only loved their work, and its products, but also loved the tools that helped them make a living for themselves and their families.
There are some wonderful books of photographs of hand made tools and toolboxes from around the turn of the century. One toolbox I have in mind must have taken over a thousand man-hours to make.
Tools are latent wealth full of promise, and it saddens me to see them taken for granted. Fine cameras are not only a testament to the craftsmen who made them but to the long line of engineers and inventors who found new and clever ways to make them work better and more reliably. Anyone who has ever taken the time to puzzle their way through the workings of even a simple shutter can?t help but be awe struck by the evidence of genius that resides there.
It saddens me when I see a screwdriver that was used for a pry bar, and broken. I have one camera that was used by a professional photographer who worked to his 70?s. He was a friend of mine, and he is dead now. It has marks on it, that are his marks, and I revere those, however it doesn?t show abuse or lack of maintenance.
Real manual labor is a fine schoolmaster, that teaches the value of things that are made, and the labor that was put into them. It gives one a respect and reverence for them.
One of my next projects it to photograph grain silos. I suspect most people think that they are ugly, but I bet those that think that they are ugly haven?t ever been really hungry.
Photography is art, but it is also craft, and true craftsmen, take care of their tools.
Neal
Matthew: Congratulations, wish you enjoy your new camera for many years to come.
The best you can do for your ebony is to place it in a glass case in the dark at 50% Relative Humidity. As you will agree this is not appropriate the second best is to protect the camera from fast, drastic changes in humidity as would happen if the canoe tipped over. Ebony is a very dense wood with slow uptake of moisture and is extremely durable but it is not immune to dimensional changes brought about by moisture changes. Waxes as others suggested are useful in as much as they provide some protection against moisture changes and protection against abrasion and mechanical dulling of the wood, however I would not trust any wax to provide you with the kind of protection against extreme conditions. Landscape photography involves unavoidable risk to equipment.
Once I was photographing a stormy looking landscape that quickly changed to a downpour. Fortunately I had my focusing cloth so I quickly draped the camera over with it. Yes, my cloth is black on the inside but on the other side is waterproof. No I do not own a wood camera but I do not like my Technika to get wet either!
'The best you can do for your ebony is to place it in a glass case in the dark at 50% Relative Humidity'.....with all due respect Julio this is not correct.
Whatever the conditions you will be using the camera under, you should place the camera in a similar envirement for at least 72 hours(if possible) or 24 hours if you can spare that, so the camera gets used to the heat or cold or humidity change.
Just putting the camera in a glass case under the conditions you've suggested isn't going to do any good if you're taking the camera up in the mountains for the next week.
Now of course this won't always be possible, but that is the best case scenario.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks