[pianotech] Belching Ivories

[Avery Todd]

Barbara, you're so evil. LOL You beat me to it!

On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Barbara Richmond <piano57 at comcast.net>wrote:

> burp...
>
> anon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Larry Fisher RPT" <larryf at pacifier.com>
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 10:23:53 AM
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Belching Ivories
>
> I've played with this a bit 15 years ago.  I found some 30 percent hydrogen
> peroxide at a scientific supply house here in PDX.  Store bought stuff is
> diluted with water.  3 percent and 6 percent are the most commonly available
> found in brown bottles usually.  Hair dresser supply houses have 12 percent
> but, around here anyway, won't sell to you unless you have a hairdresser's
> license.
>
> I took a handful of ivories I had saved and dropped them in a small tub of
> this solution and let them soak for a week.  All the previous glues fell
> off, some of them disintegrated, while others turned out pristine clean and
> ready to reuse.  I laid them in the sun to dry and they curled up plus they
> turned whiter.  Flipping them over curled them the other way until they were
> close to dry.  I then put them in a press I made from two pieces of wood and
> taped them together to act as a clamp.  They didn't dry as fast but they
> came out flat as can be.
>
> Now days, I go to a hardware store and get some wood bleach.  One bottle is
> hydrogen peroxide and the other is sodium hydroxide or some such thing.
> WEAR GLOVES!!  You can't feel this stuff on your fingers.  Water leaves a
> cooling sensation on your skin, this stuff doesn't.  It penetrates and
> starts talking to your nerve endings one at a time for hours.  You can't
> wash off something that's inside your skin.
>
> OK so you have a bottle of wood bleach, get some cotton swabs and apply it
> like you're painting it on the ivories (still attached to the keys).  Lay
> the keys out in the sun and aim them directly at the suns rays.  You're
> looking for the UV component of sunlight and I learned that UV bounces off
> windows when it hits at an angle of some sort so 90 degrees to the sun's
> rays is best.
>
> I've had good results in a few hours during the summer months and longer in
> the winter.  I re-apply the stuff every now and again as needed keeping the
> surface of the key moist with solution. I have yet to have one come off.
> I don't rinse, I just let them dry.  I then buff and polish.
>
> As a result of my previous efforts I still have a box full of REEEEELLY
> clean used ivories.  I'll be doing this again soon to replenish my supply,
> only this time just a few soaking hours will probably suffice.  I'll have to
> do this when the sun is shining and as everyone knows, it's always raining
> up here in the upper left corner of the country.  Additionally, if the
> sun does happen to shine, I'd rather be chasing pretty girls in kayaks.
>
> If ya really get creative and loaded with time to play, soak freshly
> cleaned and brightened ivory in vinegar for only a minute or two.  They'll
> soften like cooked pasta.  I'm working on playing with making roses using a
> scissors to cut them when they are soft.  Another fun thing to do is to
> inlay them in Greenland style kayak paddles .......  adding to the draw on
> babes in kayaks.  Someday, I'd like to put a band of ivory around my tuning
> lever to give it that custom look.  You could make rings of this stuff to
> hang from your left nostril, or your neighbor's kid's nostrils.  Better yet,
> roll scraps of this stuff into little balls, let dry and use as ammo with a
> sling shot to communicate with squirrels or the neighbor's cats.
>
> Ah yes, the things you think of when times are slow.
>
> Lar
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100911/a1b36905/attachment.htm>