A couple of years ago my good friend and collector buddy Bill Winters asked me if I was interested in purchasing a copy of "Wood Amongst the Wires" written by Fred Padgett and Walter P. Ruedrich. I said sure. It was just before Christmas when the book arrived so I wrapped It up and put it under the tree to open on Christmas. Shortly thereafter, I started looking through the book. There on page "iii" there was a picture of an insulator that looked terribly familiar. Looking up at the insulator sitting on my desk it become immediately apparent that the insulator sitting on my desk is the same insulator pictured in the book. Digging deeper into the book and found on page 109, another picture of the same insulator as mentioned a-fore included a write up by Walter Ruedrich who over his insulator collecting career specialized in, and collected San Francisco wood type insulators.

During his time of collecting, Walter developed a unique method on how to remove the paint, oil and gunk that accumulated on these insulators during their years in service. Once removed, one could then see and appreciate the actual base wood of the insulator in its true and natural aged condition. According to the write up, the removal process was only known to Walter and remained his secret even after his passing. It is important to point out here that the outer removal process in no way included restoration or refinishing in any way. Walter also stated that only a handful of these insulators were stripped by him as he preferred to leave the wooden insulators in their natural state. This particular example appears to be one of the few that Walter applied his secret process to.

Pulling this thread further, I found that this insulator became a part of the George "Bud" Radoff collection at some point. A picture of Bud along with "Mr. San Francisco Wooden" can be found on page 190. After Bud's passing in 2007, I'm not sure where the insulator went next. But I do know it was offered for sale in an auction catalog a few years back and I ended up becoming its its new owner.

And now after connecting some of the dots regarding its history, makes this particular insulator even more special. I realize there are many, many other stories similar to this one out there, but for me, this is one is for the books.