I finally found the opportunity to do a comparison of VSProfelt with an emulated mixture of alcohol, water, and fabric softener. I did wippen cushions and key bushings on an upright. For the key bushings, I also did a comparison with my usual steam method. My emulated mixture was approximately 12% softener, 18% alcohol, and 70% water (the figures are a result of adding to a 5 mm line for softener, 15 mm with 70% isolpropyl alcohol, and 40 with water - those lines being cumulative. This was not utterly precise, just a convenient guess, and then I did the calculations of percentage). I think the VSProfelt is actually lower in alcohol and higher in softener, and it also has silicon oil added in some formulation. VSP is milkier looking than what I made, and it doesn't wick quite as fast into the felt - hence my guess about more softener and less alcohol. Results? A tie. VSP works quite nicely. So does a mix of alcohol, water and softener. I couldn't tell any difference in the results whatsoever, other than the lubricant in VSP. The tie was between VSP and my emulation solution. Steam was significantly faster, and slightly more effective - key bushings only in this case. I think the more effective part came from the steam re- expanding the wood where it might have been squeezed/eased previously. For the bushings I had the keys in two Spurlock clamps. I applied the liquids using a tapered, pointed paintbrush (in preference to a hypo oiler, that takes longer because of the need to apply to each side separately). I did one key clamp with liquids, the other with steam. For the liquids, I alternated between sharps and naturals for the different solutions, changing the alternation when I changed from balance to front rail. The full steaming and ironing process took considerably less time than applying the liquids and inserting the cauls. I'll send a separate post following with photos of the steam process. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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