Ink Removal

[Stephen F Schell]

Hi Everybody,



  Richard Moody mentioned beauticians' strength hydrogen peroxide as an
ivory bleaching agent. I have used it and can testify that it is very
effective.

                                                   The stuff I bought at
a beauty supply company is rated as "120 volume", some sort of rating
for strengh or percentage of active ingredient. The gallon container
came wrapped in a plastic bag with a twist tie to contain any spills. It
is so strong, one must wear gloves and take precautions to avoid all skin
contact. Any contact, however slight, will cause a painful stinging
sensation and the affected area will turn snow white for several hours.



                                           I used to whiten ivory
keyboards by placing the natural keys on the keyframe, breaking the ivory's surface shine with OOOO steel wool, covering it with two layers of paper towel, and soaking the paper towel with the peroxide using a paintbrush. The paper towel would hold the pe
roxide against the ivory, allowing
it to penetrate well and evenly. After 15 minutes or so I would remove the paper towel, dry the ivory's surface, and place the keys and frame out
in the sun for a half hour. This would usually be enough to bleach most keyboards well; the results would continue to improve for several days.



                                                            I say "used
to" because of a bad experience I had. A colleague had hired me to restore an ivory keyboard on a valuable piano which had suffered from previous
inept ivory repair. I worked hard on the job, which involved, among other
things, reglueing the entire set and installing about 20 new heads (some of the last ones I had!). For that final touch, I gave them the peroxide
treatment to even out the color. Just as I was delivering the keyboard back to my friend, they started cracking. By the time they were finished, 25-30 pieces were bad and had to be redone again. Looking closely at the ivory, one could observe a vast array
 of hairline cracks as the material suffered complete structural failure. What a drag.


                                                                 Hydrogen
peroxide works, all right, but is risky. Yellowed ivory is better than cracked ivory anyday.



          Steve Schell

      stfrsc@juno.com