Smoke Damage

[Paul]

Ron
I'm guessing the type of material that was burned in the fire would have
influence on the corrosion. The piano I'm doing right know was in a fire 20+
years ago. All the action parts, although dirty and sooty, move freely with
no signs of corrosion, and are cleaning up beautifully. None of the steel,
copper, brass, any metal, shows any sign of corrosion in spite of the case
being severely damaged by heat and water. I don't know much about the
"chemistry" of fires, but have seen several homes damaged that had pianos.
Strange things occurred. Stainless steel sinks were severely pitted, but
brass and copper were only soiled. Or any metal containing copper was
severely pitted but no damage to steel or iron. I agree that smoke can
contain the corrosives. But, after seeing about a dozen of these houses and
pianos, I've learned to talk to fire experts about the type of fire and what
to expect in terms of corrosion.

Paul Chick
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Nossaman <RNossaman@KSCABLE.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 9:33 PM
Subject: Re: Smoke Damage


> >Because it was corrosive to metal parts. Strings, springs and pins to be
> >exact. It is not something that shows up right away from what I remember.
>
> Something occurs to me. If a smoked piano is ozoned and the smell goes
> away, the smoke doesn't. It stays, and is corrosive. Is it the ozone
that's
> the problem, or the smoke residue, for which the ozone gets the blame?
> True, the ozone may accelerate the corrosion process already under way,
but
> is it really the cause?
>
>
> Ron N
>