Do no harm

[pryan2]

I tuned a 35 year old Steinway M yesterday that had this greenish-blue
growth on five or six of  the agraffes. It had grown so thick that  it had
stopped two strings from ringing.  After wiggling the muted strings, they
broke free and began to sound again, so I tuned the piano and left, leaving
the green stuff on the agraffes.  If I would have had my protek with me (my
car was a block away), I would have lubricated the area. Was that a good
idea?  Was that stuff verdigris? (I thought it only grew on action centers).
Is this a common  occurrence?   Did I do the right thing?  Will that stuff
clog the agraffe holes again and cause a call-back?  Not knowing what to do,
I decided to "do no harm," get out of there, and recommend a more
experienced tuner(maybe me, by then) if it recurs.  What should I have done?

Phil Ryan
Miami Beach