how to clean the ivory key from yellow to white

[Isaac sur Noos]

Bleach have to be sanded as it tend to open the pores of the ivory, I
also use to rinse the ivory with pure water .


Bleach is to be done with sun or UV lights (plus Peroxyde hydrogen 30%
vol ), I've read recently that dancing floors UV can be used, but my
experiments with one did not give good results ("black light tube")
I ordered a special UV tube that is used for growing some plants, or
aquariums, seem to work quite well.

Another kind of tube is available for disinfection in laboratories,
operating rooms in hospitals, been said they are very efficient but if
you look at it for 15 seconds, your eyes are itching like if you used
sanding paper on them, can be very dangerous, and you need then a
closed space for whitening the keys then.

There is a town in south of France, Nice, that was know for ivory work
(in the 30 's) they have a lot of sun there and it was a reason why.
They lay the ivory pieces in the direct sun for whitening.

Be happy, with the global climate change and the fair production of
CO2 we have, we will have more and more UV available soon, and as the
most important producers of CO2 (USA and Russia at this day) are
certainly not involved in any regulation about it "because that should
be a handicap for our economy" they say, our children will have nice
ivory keys without any special operation on them.

Sorry for ranting , thats my 15 minutes !

Isaac OLEG





------------------------------------
Isaac OLEG
accordeur - reparateur - concert
oleg-i@noos.fr
19 rue Jules Ferry
94400 VITRY sur SEINE
tel: 033 01 47 18 06 98
fax: 33 01 47 18 06 90
mobile: 033 06 60 42 58 77
------------------------------------


> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : pianotech-bounces@ptg.org
> [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org]De la
> part de Dave Nereson
> Envoyé : dimanche 9 novembre 2003 09:11
> À : Pianotech
> Objet : Re: how to clean the ivory key from yellow to white
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Sin" <ksinpiano@yahoo.com>
> To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 12:06 AM
> Subject: re: how to clean the ivory key from yellow to white
>
>
> > Hi  !
> > I don't know how to make the ivory key from yellow to white ?
> > anyone can help me !
> > Thanks !!!
> > Piano Tuner Student
> > KenSin
> > Piano Tuner
>
>     There's no quick way I know of.  They have to be
> bleached, either with sunlight, which takes a long time, or
> by soaking them with bleach (like Clorox) or peroxide.
> There is a method using hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet
> light, described in the July 1995 issue of the PTG Journal.
>     Gee, there are so many teeth-whitening products on the
> market nowdays -- I wonder if one of them would work on
> ivories?  (I'm surprised they're not already marketing
> these products as piano key cleaners also.)
>     --David Nereson, RPT
>
> _______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>