Sanded plastic keys

[ATodd@UH.EDU]

To any "key" people out there,
   I ran across the following the other day on a newgroup for piano users
and had never heard of this. I would like to hear any pro's or con's about
this procedure:
***********

   "Forget ivory. Plastic is fine, if you finish it properly. Spend 8 hours
and make your keyboard into something really nice. The following advice I
got many years ago from an old New York City "Piano Key Man":

* Place a 1/4" piece of glass, 12 x 12" or so on a table.
  Use glass because it is very hard, flat, and smooth.
* Place a piece of 280 sandpaper on it.
*Remove a key from the piano.
*Turn it upside down
*Sand it with a forward-back movement on the sandpaper
 until all the unevenness of the surface of the key has been equalized,
 and no shiny areas remain
*Use loose sandpaper to sand the side and front edges of the key
*Finally, rub 0000 steel wool lengthwise on the surface of the key 4 times.
*Repeat for all the keys
*Sand the sides and front of the black keys

   I've done this to each of the 3 grands I've owned. Recently, I did it
again 10 years later to my most recent piano. Joseph Hoffman used to do
this to his pianos.
   The result is a wonderful satin finish that feels great, and is at least
as good as ivory. No more treacherous, slippery black keys, no more white
keys that get sticky or slippery with sweat or skin oil.
   Occasionally clean the keys with isopropanol (the cheap "rubbing alcohol"
you can buy in the drug store is just fine).

***************

   This is a complete quote of the message I read. It sounds interesting,
but I would like to hear your comments on it.

Thanks,

Avery Todd
atodd@uh.edu