bleaching ivories: E-Z

[Mike Bratcher]

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I have also experimented with spare ivory tops, using laundry bleach.  I =
soaked for different lengths of time.  Some for several hours.  I do =
remember that they turned to mush.  Literally mush.  The tails I soaked =
would not hold their own weight.  It was like picking up pasta.  I don't =
remember how the shorter times turned out.  But, the impression I took =
away from the experiment was that bleach is probably not the best for =
ivory.

Mike Bratcher
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Tvak@aol.com=20
  To: pianotech@ptg.org=20
  Sent: Saturday, March 06, 2004 7:32 PM
  Subject: bleaching ivories: E-Z


  List

  I remember a thread about bleaching ivories a few months back and my =
time came this week to try it.  Three ivories were missing on the piano =
and going to my stock of old ivories I could find only 4 or 5 that were =
long enough. Unfortunately, they were really yellow and didn't match =
their prospective neighbors in the least. =20

  There was discussion on the thread about sunlight and peroxide and it =
seemed to be a pretty complicated procedure.  Having nothing to lose but =
one old ivory...

  I filled a cup with some laundry bleach and threw in one of the keys.  =
Twenty minutes later it was a perfect white.  So, I threw in the other =
two and they also turned white, but unfortunately I left them in too =
long and they warped into a shallow U shape.  I put them side by side on =
the bench, laid my aluminum ruler on top of them, and put my bowling =
ball on top of that.  (I had to set a book next to the bowling ball to =
keep it from rolling off the bench.)

  End result: three perfectly matching white ivories.  Whomsoever said =
that laundry bleach wouldn't work: not true!

  Tom Sivak
  Chicago 
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