---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Garland Goodland, RPT, of the Western Carolina Chapter, asked about getting the yellow out. Here is his original post. How do I remove the yellow coloring from old ivory keytops? I have tried sunlight and Hydrogen Peroxide. Don Valley, RPT, let me have some 35% solution H2O2 and I tried it, but to no avail. I seem to remember an article in the Journal about this; please direct me to it if you can. Otherwise, just tell me what to do, since Don and I do not know at this point! Thanks! _______________________________________________ I answered with this. The only other method I've tried, with some limited success, is black light. You can buy 4' tubes of florescent black light tubes at most hardware stores. Get a 4' two tube shop light, and mount it about a foot over the keys. Then soak cheese cloth in H202 solution, and cover the ivories Let it sit for a couple of days. The cheese cloth will dry out, but the H202 will absorb into the ivory, and the ultra violet rays of the black light will lighten up the ivory. I don't think I ever got all the yellow out, but the keys did look a lot less yellow To which Garland replied: Dear Wim, Thanks for the advice. What I have done so far is to sand the keytops with 220 wet paper to even up the joints between heads and tails. That got most of the yellowing off, but there is still some yellow here and there, which looks worse than before! Don suggested putting a rag soaked in H2O2 over the keys, but all that did after a day was to curl some of the tops and cause them to fall off. I wet one side again (just water) and waited until they were flat again to put them back on the keys. I don't really want the ivories coming off because I have to sand again when I put them back on. But I would like to lessen the yellow before I polish the ivory on the buffing wheel. Buffing might remove some, but I don't plan to remove significant ivory in polishing. You say that the "black light" helps, but you also say that you have not been able to remove all the yellow. Maybe I will hear from some more people, or can find the Journal article. Does anyone have a better idea, or can tell Garland which Journal the article is in. Garland's address is garland@main.nc.us Wim Willem Blees, RPT Piano Technician School of Music University of Alabama ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/6d/e6/7a/b0/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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