Hey Folks,
I just finished restoring an old unmarked 1890's 5 string banjo. I bought this one on Ebay a couple of months ago. It was in rough shape, dirty and missing some hardware (3 hooks, tailpiece, nut, bridge, and 4 out of 5 tuner pegs). The head has also busted! First, I disassembled it and gave it a light cleaning to retain the patina. The finish was in bad shape. I went over it lightly with 0000 steel wool and then applied Howard's Feed and Wax to protect it from further cracking/decay. I lightly oiled the painted fingerboard with lemon oil too. I replaced the head with a unbleached economy goat skin from Elderly. Luckily I had some extra hooks that were almost a perfect match to the originals. I reamed the tuner holes to two degrees and replaced the tuners with shaped ebony violin pegs. I added a unbleached bone nut and 5th string pip from Stew Mac. I also found a period tailpiece from a BHO member here that suites this banjo well. I added a Morris SS Stewart-like 5/8" bridge too. Finally I strung it up with Classical Nylgut strings. I'm fairly pleased with it so I thought I'd share with it you all. Have a look at the before and after photos and I also posted a sound clip I recorded this afternoon in the back yard!
Thanks to everyone for the help. As always, I'm impressed with the knowledge and willingness to share on BHO.
Warren