whale oil (OT)

[Dorothy Bell]

> Subject: Re:  Verdigris
>
> Dorothy, Thanks for the chemistry lesson. If you are reading this, do you
think on those old S&S parts that
> were treated with paraffin and whale oil, that the organic whale oil might
> be more responsible for turning to acid and attacking the metal pins than
> the paraffin?  What do you think?
>
> Jim Ellis

Dear Jim and all,

No question that the whale oil could turn to acid and the paraffin would
not.

Chemically:

Paraffin is just a mixture of long chains (like a row of vertebrae in a
spinal column) of carbons, with hydrogens attached whereever there is
space. H(3)C - CH(2) - CH(2) - CH(2) -  and so on and so on, ending -
CH(3). Paraffins don't do much chemically, they're just physically slippery
and slide around between the joints. 

(If you have the same setup but tack on fluorine atoms instead of
hydrogens, you have Teflon(trademark). Same idea, non-reactive long chains
which let things slide over them. Protek and McLube, to my understanding,
contain Teflon-type products mixed with solvents and other greases which
have their own specific behaviors -- but since they're proprietary products
your guess is as good as mine there.)

But whale oil! Whale oil is a mix of things but is mostly long carbon
chains (see above) with an ester functionality. What that means is that
every so often in the long chain you get
	- CH(2) - C - O - CH(2) - CH(2) -      ,
                             "    
	                O
 
so that the chain is interrupted by a carbon's being attached not just to
more carbons but to two oxygen molecules. Show that to some water (and we
know that piano wood absorbs water, those changes are our bread and
butter), and the chain breaks at that oxygenated point and falls into two
pieces, an alcohol and, guess what, an acid. It can't help it, there's no
way to stop it, it just does. And you would know the practical aspects of
this better than I (I've never to my knowledge seen either whale oil or
paraffin used on a piano), but having acids in the piano can't be good for
the metal parts.

I hope this information is helpful.

Best wishes,
Dorrie Bell