<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><div>This is just a thought, Terry, as I&#39;ve not tried all of these, but suggest that you might try naptha on terry-cloth (named for you? ) first, which does a fairly good job without melting the finsh, and doesn&#39;t leave residues; and if that&#39;s not adequate, a mild dish soap (like Seventh Generation&#39;s vegan stuff) which I suspect would not affect it. Or one or both of these with a scratch-free scrub pad. Whatever you choose, please let us know what worked best for you, and what you sprayed it with after to bring the gloss back? ( I&#39;ve had seemingly excellent results with a simple spray can of Deft for this, but would not 100% guarantee that it would forever stick, in  your situation.)<br /><br />Thumpe<br /><br /></div></td></tr></table>            <div id="_origMsg_">
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                                <span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span>
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                            Terry Farrell &lt;mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com&gt;;                            <br>
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                                <span style="font-weight:bold:">To:</span>
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                             &lt;pianotech@ptg.org&gt;;                                                                                                     <br>
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                                <span style="font-weight:bold:">Subject:</span>
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                            [pianotech] Cleaning Very Old Plate                            <br>
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                                <span style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span>
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                            Tue, May 22, 2012 12:57:45 PM                            <br>
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                                        <td valign="top" style="font:inherit;">I'm restringing an 1867 S&amp;S Square grand. I'm pulling the plate and with to clean it as well as possible. However, at this time I have no plans to refinish the plate - it is to stay original. The original finish is in some sort of condition approaching good (considering its age - shall we say "well developed patina"). I would like to refinish it, but it has quite a bit of two-tone areas and a lot of pinstriping - something that I'd never be able to reproduce - though, I suppose for anyone with some art talent, it would be a piece of cake.<BR><BR>So maybe two things. If left original, how best to remove as much old gook as possible WITHOUT degrading the finish any more than it is. And second, where to I start looking for an artist who could reproduce the original paint scheme?<BR><BR>Thanks for any thoughts.<BR><BR>Terry Farrell</td>
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