Removing Rust

Barbara E. Richmond brichmon@e-tex.com
Wed, 26 Jun 1996 20:00 -0500 (CDT)


Hi all,

Last week, as I was working on a little Whitney Spinet (my, oh, my, how my
life has changed) I read some notes the last piano technician had left in
the piano (written on the keys--in fact, there were so many, he would've run
out of room if he had serviced the piano a few more times--maybe they were
notes for a novel, I don't know.).  Anyway, he wrote that he had removed
rust from the tuning pins.  I didn't see any traces of rust on the pins or
on the strings, so my thoughts were, "He really did a great job", or, "There
wasn't much rust to begin with."  In my previously ideal, over-protected,
business life in Illinois, I rarely serviced a piano with a rust problem and
when I did, the strings were a problem too and I would just lube the strings
at the necessary pressure points, etc.  So, finally, the question is, does
one normally remove rust from tuning pins?  Would it be more common in the
case when there is no rust on the strings?
If so, how is it best accomplished?  Emery cloth, a wire brush?  (I did, by
the way, install a Dampp-Chaser & humidistat in this piano--for other
symptoms, though.)

I guess this is one of those things that I've missed somehow during the
fifteen years I've been working on pianos or, perhaps I shouldn't believe
everything I read inside a piano!

Barbara Richmond, RPT
Palestine, Texas

PS  Thanks to all of you who have inquired about my attending the
convention.  I     won't be there and haven't written back because I haven't
been feeling too      great--but don't worry, it's for a good reason.  If
all goes well, a            Richmond baby will arrive sometime around
February 12!





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