Larry, "Belching Ivories", what the **** are you guys eating? > 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 > > >
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