Buffing out to a high sheen definitely looks nice but unless you clear coat them the brass begins to oxidize and your sheen is lost within a year or so. While the shape may not be perfect out of the box I think the question is to what effect. A quick reaming by hand seems to be all that is necessary for clean and stable termination. Since that's my ultimate goal anything beyond that seems like overkill. Once the string slides through there a few times under tension it's questionable just how perfect that shape remains anyway, at least at the point of contact. Then again, I do go the extra mile in a lot of areas so I can't really criticize. It's more drawing a distinction between what's nice and what's necessary. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Stan Kroeker Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:13 PM To: College and University Technicians Subject: Re: [CAUT] Polishing Agraffes David, You're right ... the new brass agraffes, clear-coated, look quite nice. Huge improvement over the old tarnished ones. However, in my rebuilding, the paradigm is for all metal hardware, brass or nickel, to be polished to the highest sheen possible. Easily and quickly accomplished with a hard felt buffing wheel charged with jeweller's rouge. Finished this way, the agraffes shine out of the piano like gold nuggets. I love the look! For those unconvinced that new agraffes require reaming, try a little experiment and cut one in half, through one of the string holes. You will notice that the cross-section is not the desired 'hour-glass' but rather holes which have counter-sink profiles milled at each end. Not the same thing! If you're really obsessive and decide to polish the recesses as well (after reaming) I had some success with cutting Q-tips in half, chucking one in a cordless drill, charging it with rouge and running into the holes (I have a fixture which holds about a dozen aggraffes at a time in a vice). I was surprised at how these disposable things held out. Only needed about half a dozen (so ... cut in half ... 12 ... duh). Is all this necessary? Maybe ... maybe not ... but for a couple hours of work, you've eliminated a potential source of unpleasant noise and anyone glancing under the lid will surely notice the gleaming hardware. Thanks for sharing your techniques, David. I've enjoyed reading them! Regards, Stan Kroeker, RPT On 24-Sep-09, at 7:57 PM, David Love wrote: One light turn with one of those little reamers and I've never had a noise problem with new agraffes and without going through the whole polishing routine. In this case I'd probably opt for new just because it's easier and new agraffes aren't that expensive when you consider the labor of the polishing process to remove string grooves and discoloration and such. Give them a quick shot of some lacquer for brass and they'll stay looking nice for much longer. Whenever I change bass strings I just make it a habit of changing the agraffes. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 12:20 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Polishing Agraffes In a message dated 9/24/2009 12:45:59 P.M. Central Daylight Time, pmctooner at cfl.rr.com writes: Since the agraffes are out, don't fool with them. Put in new ones. You'll get a better termination. Can you provide some proof of that statement? I'd love to see it. :-) Paul ---- Lawrence R K Becker <lawrence.becker at insightbb.com> wrote: > The agraffes are out of the piano. I have been putting the polish on, > letting dry, then buffing with a polishing wheel on a Dremel tool, and using > a pipe cleaner in a second Dremel tool for the holes and their concavities. > > Lawrence > > _____ > > From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Mccoy, > Alan > Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 7:05 PM > To: CAUTlist > Subject: Re: [CAUT] Polishing Agraffes > > > Are you polishing the agraffes in the piano fully strung or removing them? > Also are you polishing just the outside surfaces? > > Alan > > > > _____ > > From: Lawrence R K Becker <lawrence.becker at insightbb.com> > Reply-To: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org> > Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:08:23 -0700 > To: CAUTlist <caut at ptg.org> > Subject: [CAUT] Polishing Agraffes > > Dear Group- > > What polishing compound do you find works well when cleaning up agraffes? I > have some from a new Boston that were discolored after an HVAC pipe leaked > into the piano, down the (mostly) bass strings, and into the agraffes. I > used Hagerty Heavy-Duty copper brass & metal polish, which initial tests > showed to work a little better than Brasso. The results are not > acceptable--the discoloration is still there, and the brass did not get that > high shine I've seen when polishing capstans. > > I'll have to re-do these, and would like to do so only once. > > Any help appreciated. > > Lawrence Becker, RPT > Northern Kentucky University > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090924/0bef21d9/attachment.htm>
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