Stringing Scales/least of problems

[William Bailer]

On Fri, 23 Aug 1996, Newton Hunt wrote:

> ...  I use talc or corn starch on my hands and dip the pin into same
>to absorb any moisture or oils off the pins.  I have very few jumpy
>pins thereafter. ...
>	Newton

Newton,
I'll BET you have "very few jumpy pins", talc is a LUBRICANT! :=)

I propose that the manufacturers use gloves because they have found that
"powders" don't work.

There seems to be some confusion about "talcum powder", which I will
attempt to clear up.  "Bath" type talcum powder usually contains talc
and corn starch, the function of each being entirely different:

Talc is a translucent crystaline mineral dug out of the earth--  which
is ground up into powder.  It does not absorb any water or oils at all,
it's only function is as a lubricant, and as a coating on the skin that
prevents other things (like the opposing side of your arm pit) from
sticking to it.  It may be of some benefit in protecting strings from
the oils and salt in ones skin, in that it gets stuck to that oil and
prevents the string from sticking to it.  I cannot see how this could be
effective for more than a few minutes without constant renewal, since it
is so easilly knocked off.  In any case, the talc is harmless to the
strings.  It's use in the piano trade has been primarilly as a lubricant
to replace graphite where one doesn't want the "black", such as grand
keybeds to facilitate the shifting keyboard.  I can't see that it could
do anything for a tuning pin except to make it slippery!

Corn starch, as well as any other food starch, does absorb water, but
very little-- it also would have to be constantly renewed during the
course of stringing in order to be effective.  I believe that it is
actually destructive, because some of it is certain to transfer to the
strings, and then hold moisture on the string!  In fact, if you sprinkle
corn starch on a scrap roll of wire, it will CAUSE rust stains! On a
tuning pin, it probably has no effect different from that of the wood
that it contacts in the pin block.

To strip oil off of a surface (like a tuning pin) machinists use a
solvent called "degreaser".  For all I know, paint thinner or acetone
may work just as well.  Just dip the pin, the solvent evaporates
quickly, and it is extremely clean.

Personally, I have heard no scientifically based use for starch in piano
work, and talc only as a lubricant.

Any more ideas out there?  Any chemists?
Bill Bailer

\\\  William Bailer ("Bill")
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