While searching for lenses for my foray into large format, I ran across an old ICA "Maximar" f/5.4 in fairly good condition, with a working shutter. Being intrigued, and since I was still under budget, I bought it. In a perfect world, it would be useful for actual, you know, photographs. Worst case, if the lens isn't salvageable, the shutter appears to be in excellent condition.
Research tells me this type of lens was sold around 1920 in box cameras of 9x12 and 6x9 format. The bad news is that the f/5.4 version was apparently only sold with 6x9 models, suggesting it's probably not good for 9x12cm, let alone 4x5". Ah well. It may yet take some medium format images.
The lens arrived in good condition, needing light cleaning, and the front element was easy enough to remove and clean. The shutter works properly in all settings, although I have yet to check it for accuracy.
The rear element, however, has some spots I'd like to investigate closer, but applying moderate pressure to the rear element refused to unseat it, so here's the question: How do you normally remove the rear element on one of these lenses? Is it left-hand thread, is it riveted in place, did someone put loctite in the threads? How much force should I reasonably expect to apply, given that the lens is probably right at the century mark in age? Is there a magic incantation (not totally out of the question, since the ICA logo at the time was a pentagram)?
Generally speaking, if it's fungus, I want it dead. If it's haze, and can't be removed, I'll live with it. If it's removable, I want it gone, because otherwise, the lens looks fairly clean to me, and it should be taking photographs instead of collecting dust.
Any advice?
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