Hi everyone, Just picked up and cleaned up this old snare which I believe is a leedy although it's not badged or labeled. Only markings are stamped inside the shell and on the underside of each hoop "X1444 and 00". Looks like the Leedy "utility strainer" to me which may date it somewhere like 1912 - 1925?? Sound reasonable? The shell and hoops are one ply steam bent solid maple. Bearing edges are pretty close to 45 degrees which surprised me a bit. I assumed all old snares had pretty mellow edges. This looks to have had 12 tension rods originally. It came to me with 9 and I have 8 on it now.

This looks wrong to me with a modern snare side head and wires but it's all I had handy. The batter head says "selected calf Hardwhite brand Leedy". I know zero about calf heads. Should I assume a really old calf head like this one appears to be has had it's useful life? Who's a good supplier for calf heads these days? I'd like to try and tuck one myself just for fun. At the very least getting a calf snare side head on there. Thanks for any info and advice.

Steve