At 07:29 PM 07/28/2000 -0400, you wrote: >Susan, > I'll take it on faith that all that vodka and Everclear is really >for piano work. Do you ever have any difficulty convincing the local >constabulary of this when they see it in your car? >:-) > >Greg Newell Actually, that does bring up an interesting point. When Ulrich Gerhartz came to Seattle for a workshop in voicing, he showed us his kit. It sort of blew my mind, because it was so small, so perfectly organized, and so clean and fully stocked. His method of voicing, European, is to use collodion in ether. Ether would be a big problem to take on an airplane, except that any liquids he carried were in TINY bottles, about the size one associates with enamel for model cars. Even if the ether bottle broke, it would release so little that it wouldn't really be a problem. My "vodka" (which is really Clear Spring bulk alcohol cut 1/2 and 1/2 with tap water) is in a little 3 ounce plastic bottle. Even though it is hand-labeled VODKA in faint black marker, it slips into a purse or kit or even just sits on the passenger seat without giving the feeling that I'm about to drink it. The voicing shellac is put into a dark brown herbal tincture bottle, which is also quite small ... about 2 oz. Both the vodka and the voicing shellac are then put in ziploc bags. The "Clear Spring" fifth stays at home. It lasts me about three years, on average, even with using some to tincture herbs like motherwort and elecampane. The "vodka" I use for lots of things now, such as softening the old glue when drilling out broken hammer shanks, swabbing on shanks when I have to bend them with heating pliers, voicing, and treating center pins. Magic elixir. It would even disinfect a cut, though it would sting a little. Susan Kline
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC