Hi All,
Just a few pictures of various Ranchero dials, their lume plots and hands. I’d be interested to hear your thoughts as to whether you think they are original lume, relumed, Radium or Tritium ? I know it’s hard to judge from photos alone.
Despite my records indicating that there are 2 black dial Rancheros to 1 white, the white appear to have been more susceptible to ageing/damage so there are more photos of white dials pictured.
Can you tell the difference between Radium and Tritium by looks alone ? If a Radium dial was relumed with Tritium decades ago, how does that read on a Geiger counter compared to an original Radium only lume dial or a Tritium only dial ?
Have fun judging

 

The next lot

 

A few more ...

 

Some more

 

How about you narrow it down to about 1 or 2 to each post so far.

jamming 20+ odd pictures in 4 posts is a touch overwhelming

 

Sorry about that I got carried away. Edited

 

Being obsessed with original dials and being (still) a newbie I must confess that this is a subject that interests me a lot. To make it clear... do you know the answers to your questions? You're throwing a little "game" to the table, is that it? I'm willing to give it a shot

 

Of the ones I’ve posted so far there’s 2 I’m unsure of, the other 10 I’m fairly certain of, some of the 10 I do know the correct answer. It’s more about people’s thoughts on the dials/hands, some I think we’ll all agree on, others maybe not and therein lies a discussion.
I originally got carried away and posted numerous others but I’ll likely post 3 pictures at a time in future

I’d be interested on any feedback from anyone familiar with Radium and Tritium dials

 

Ok. I will give a try. Picture by picture in order of appearance:

1- old relume H3 on dial / a most recent on the hour hand
2- original H3 on both hands and dial
3- relume dial / tritium hands
4- old relume (H3) on both hans and dial
5- Redial / H3 relume hands
6- Relume on both dial and hands
7- original H3 on both dial and hands
8- original H3 lume or very old relume
9- No relume or relume on both hands and dial
10- original H3 on both dial and hands
11- original H3 lume
12- Old H3 relume

Please do note that I know (almost) NOTHING! So don't feel offended if indeed most of my "relumes" are actually originals. I'm doing this in the pure pursue of knowledge. How many did I get right?

 

Nice one. Giving you the benefit of the doubt on one of your answers as it’s a little ambiguous, you scored 6 based on my answers. Stay tuned for more details and further pictures

 

Ok, 3,5,8 & 9 are all original
10 & 12 I’m on the fence as to whether they’ve been relumed or not
The rest are relumed dials and or replaced broad arrow hands including number 11 which is an aftermarket dial relumed

So ......

 

Great!

In my defence I think I mixed up the order of the photos... Do you have some tips about how to spot original/relumed dials??
Let me tell you what I think I know:
- texture: normally relumed dials aren´t very smooth and are a bit lumpy
- color: Ra normally is dark and has some spots (it may damage/burn the dial), H3 ages very differently colorwise I guess... There are H3 lumes quite white but never understand why
- normally original lumes are well centred on the designated places (doesn't surpass dial borders)
- briefly reactive to UV light (a few seconds) both Ra and H3 dials
- Ra dials make the Geiger go crazy; H3 not at all (sometimes if Geiger shows some radioactivity but less that you would expect from a fully Ra dial may be a relume where the Ra wasn't completely cleared up and new lume was put on top of it).

Glad to stand corrected by more knowledgeable members