Barbara, you're so evil. LOL You beat me to it! On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Barbara Richmond <piano57 at comcast.net>wrote: > burp... > > anon > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Larry Fisher RPT" <larryf at pacifier.com> > To: pianotech at ptg.org > Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:23:53 AM > Subject: Re: [pianotech] Belching Ivories > > I've played with this a bit 15 years ago. I found some 30 percent hydrogen > peroxide at a scientific supply house here in PDX. Store bought stuff is > diluted with water. 3 percent and 6 percent are the most commonly available > found in brown bottles usually. Hair dresser supply houses have 12 percent > but, around here anyway, won't sell to you unless you have a hairdresser's > license. > > I took a handful of ivories I had saved and dropped them in a small tub of > this solution and let them soak for a week. All the previous glues fell > off, some of them disintegrated, while others turned out pristine clean and > ready to reuse. I laid them in the sun to dry and they curled up plus they > turned whiter. Flipping them over curled them the other way until they were > close to dry. I then put them in a press I made from two pieces of wood and > taped them together to act as a clamp. They didn't dry as fast but they > came out flat as can be. > > Now days, I go to a hardware store and get some wood bleach. One bottle is > hydrogen peroxide and the other is sodium hydroxide or some such thing. > WEAR GLOVES!! You can't feel this stuff on your fingers. Water leaves a > cooling sensation on your skin, this stuff doesn't. It penetrates and > starts talking to your nerve endings one at a time for hours. You can't > wash off something that's inside your skin. > > OK so you have a bottle of wood bleach, get some cotton swabs and apply it > like you're painting it on the ivories (still attached to the keys). Lay > the keys out in the sun and aim them directly at the suns rays. You're > looking for the UV component of sunlight and I learned that UV bounces off > windows when it hits at an angle of some sort so 90 degrees to the sun's > rays is best. > > I've had good results in a few hours during the summer months and longer in > the winter. I re-apply the stuff every now and again as needed keeping the > surface of the key moist with solution. I have yet to have one come off. > I don't rinse, I just let them dry. I then buff and polish. > > As a result of my previous efforts I still have a box full of REEEEELLY > clean used ivories. I'll be doing this again soon to replenish my supply, > only this time just a few soaking hours will probably suffice. I'll have to > do this when the sun is shining and as everyone knows, it's always raining > up here in the upper left corner of the country. Additionally, if the > sun does happen to shine, I'd rather be chasing pretty girls in kayaks. > > If ya really get creative and loaded with time to play, soak freshly > cleaned and brightened ivory in vinegar for only a minute or two. They'll > soften like cooked pasta. I'm working on playing with making roses using a > scissors to cut them when they are soft. Another fun thing to do is to > inlay them in Greenland style kayak paddles ....... adding to the draw on > babes in kayaks. Someday, I'd like to put a band of ivory around my tuning > lever to give it that custom look. You could make rings of this stuff to > hang from your left nostril, or your neighbor's kid's nostrils. Better yet, > roll scraps of this stuff into little balls, let dry and use as ammo with a > sling shot to communicate with squirrels or the neighbor's cats. > > Ah yes, the things you think of when times are slow. > > Lar > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100911/a1b36905/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC