What kind of reproducer for brown wax?

[jeeprod]

I have happened on a hoard of MINT Columbia brown wax cylinders. They are mold-free, having lived out here in the desert for half a century at least. I played a few for a few seconds each on a Standard with a C reproducer.
Have I harmed the records? Is it absolutely wrong to use a C reproducer on brown wax?

[lucius1958]

You probably have not harmed the cylinders too much; but I would not recommend the Model C for playback.

Try an Automatic or Model B on the Standard, or a Columbia with a floating reproducer.

BillS

[borrilabs]

Automatic or the Columbia floating are the safest way to play them. The Model B is actually more heavy than the C. Although I test my new brown wax records with a C as they are recorded with an original Edison studio recording head, so are Gold moulded/Amberol loud. post 1903 (Actually used by Walter Miller,Fred C Burt and George Werner.)

[borrilabs]

I also agree with automatic, or Columbia floating reproducer. The Model B is heavier than the C. Also to be quite honest, all Columbia moulded records, are nothing more than brown wax, with lampblack added, so they also should not be played with heavy reproducers. I will be honest, I test all my own recordings on a model C and they are standard Edison brown wax. Edison brown wax actually has more aluminum than black wax Edison's around a half percent for brown wax, and a quarter percent for black wax (Edison's. This is because the black wax for the moulding process had to be more elastic, and not so brittle. In experiments, I have made fresh Edison gold moulded wax from scratch, and this wax, is very soft for a few days, and then after a few weeks is very hard. What makes the Gold Moulded Edison's different is the added chemicals that make the wax more durable, Columbia only uses 4 ingredients in there moulded records, while Edison in addition to those used ebonite or carnauba, pine tar and copper stearate. The Flat end Edison GMs used a brown wax blank plus carnauba wax.