[pianotech] Chalk or chalk [was restoration]

[John Delacour]

At 06:40 -0400 22/4/10, Marcel Carey wrote:

>But I do like your idea of polishing the ivories by hand to make 
>them feel better. What kind of chalk are you using?

At 17:10 +0100 22/4/10, I wrote:

>Just ordinary powdered chalk (CaCo3) that you can buy at any 
>builders merchant's. They sometimes call it line chank (for plumb 
>lines) and it's also known as whitening or whiting.

By one of those chances I came to the polishing of the Steinway D 
keys today, couldn't lay my hands on my pot of powdered whitening and 
wasn't in the mood to spend half an hour looking for it, so I used 
Vienna Chalk instead.  It did the job just as well if not better. 
I'll have to make a comparison later.

Now what Vienna (or Berlin) chalk is I am unable to say and whether 
you can get it in America I don't know, but here traditionally it is 
used with in the final stage of French polishing for the "glass 
finish", and that's why I have it.  It has a similar feel to ordinary 
chalk but is less white.

One thing it is NOT is French Chalk, which is talc, as in talcum 
powder, and a completely different thing with different properties 
and quite unsuitable as a polishing medium.  A lot of people seem to 
be confused about this.

JD


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