Key whitening - the Cutex cure!

[Tom Sivak]

David

I have a piano I want to try this on.  I have a couple of specific questions as to your procedure.

Did you remove the keys from the piano to apply the Cutex?  I imagine if any Cutex got on the adjacent black keys it might smudge black onto the white keytop. 

After applying the Cutex with the towel, did you then wipe off any remaining Cutex/moisture with a clean towel, or did you just leave it in place?

Thanks for sharing this with us and for any additional info, too.

Tom Sivak
Chicago  




--- On Sat, 9/13/08, David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com> wrote:

> From: David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com>
> Subject: Key whitening - the Cutex cure!
> To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
> Date: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 9:43 AM
> Some may recall that a few months ago I reported on the
> startling whiteness 
> of a third of the keys on a customer's old straight
> strung upright, and 
> described the success of using Cutex Nail Polish Remover,
> the customer's 
> discovery.  I surmised that it might be the acetone
> content. When I looked 
> all around town for the same variety of Cutex, all I could
> find was, not the 
> blue one but the pink acetone-free Cutex. I bought a bottle
> of another brand 
> containing acetone, but had not yet had the chance to use
> it.
> 
> Yesterday I went to a customer who had replaced their old
> wrecked 
> straight-strung upright with a slightly less old less
> wrecked similar, which 
> they got for free. The keytops (celluloid) were very
> yellowed and, I 
> thought, a good candidate to try the nail polish remover
> treatment. 
> Naturally I had forgotten to put in the car the case with
> my bottle of 
> other-brand nail polish remover, so I asked the owner's
> little girl if they 
> had any.
> 
> She brought in a bottle of the pink acetone-free Cutex.  It
> worked superbly! 
> The ease of obtaining a superb result is absolutely
> startling.  The nail 
> polish remover definitely seems to remove a fine surface
> layer of molecules, 
> the discoloured plastic, and get the key back down to
> white.  And in doing 
> it, it seems to cause no damage - the "new"
> surface hardens immediately and 
> can be gently buffed with a dry cloth and feels fine for
> playing.
> 
> I used kitchen towel to apply the acetone, and you need
> fresh clean surface 
> for each key.  The work is very quick.
> 
> Interestingly, the grand-dad, who had phoned to arrange the
> tuning, said on 
> the phone "This is a smaller piano, it only has about
> 50 keys", and I had 
> visions of a little "yacht piano" of which there
> are a few in my patch.  But 
> when I got there, it was a full-size 7 octave keyboard. He
> had only counted 
> the white notes!  Admitedlly the whole piano was smaller
> than their last one 
> however.
> 
> The customer had carefully cleaned up and polished the
> black casework with 
> nice beeswax polish, and now with the white keytops, it
> looks pretty good! 
> (But doesn't sound that marvellous...)
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> David.