[pianotech] Cleaning the filth off keysides.....

John Delacour JD at Pianomaker.co.uk
Tue Feb 3 10:30:02 PST 2009


At 08:56 -0800 3/2/09, Euphonious Thumpe wrote:

>Scrape the worst off with a razor blade ( wearing ventless goggles, 
>gloves and a carbon-filter mask with pre-filters ) then wipe the 
>rest off with a  scrub pad in alcohol, or a little soap and water 
>and dry right away with paper towels.  ( But watch out for some 
>kinds of alcohol on some kinds of keytops --- will dissolve! )

To use alcohol is pointless, since what you are removing is a waxy, 
greasy substance, and alcohol will not dissolve it but instead 
dissolve the spirit-based shellac often used on the ebony sharps. 
White spirit <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_spirit> and fine 
wire wool will quickly remove the solid sweat from the sharps or the 
naturals, or, for the naturals I usually scrub them with Scotchbrite 
and hot water with detergent added.

JD






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