Greg Unfortunately, you should have asked first, before putting a dab of 3 in 1 oil on the beckets. As others have indicated, that is not the oil of choice, and you have probably created more of a mess than if you had left it alone. As far as oil on the strings, no matter what kind you want to use, it does nothing for the strings. Rusty strings do not break in the speaking part. (except when a liquid has been dropped on the string in one small section). They break at the pressure points, like at the tuning pins, the agraffs, and V bars, the bridge pins and at the hitch pins. Although a small drop of Protek and other oils that have been mentioned, might keep the strings from breaking, there really isn't much you can do to keep them from breaking. All you can do is hope they won't break while you're tuning the piano, and tell the customer that in the not to distant future, the strings will start to break on their own. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Greg Livingston <pianotuner440 at hotmail.com> To: Pianotech list <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sun, Sep 26, 2010 5:22 pm Subject: [pianotech] Wiping Rusty Strings with Oil Dear Friends, Today I tuned a 1920's grand with really rusty strings. Not wanting to add to my troubles, I put a dab of 3 in 1 Oil at each becket and on either side of every agraffe with a Q tip. The piano was very sharp, and I break far fewer strings lowering the pitch compared to raising the pitch. Do you do this? I read once that you should put Liquid Wrench with a pipe cleaner at every becket, but I did that once and the whole house stunk for hours. Ergo, the Three In One. Also, for really rusted strings in a grand, have you ever wiped all the strings with an oily rag, just to reduce the chances of a broken string? It seems like a good idea but I await the judgement of my colleagues. Thanks, Greg Livingston ___________________________________________________ Gregory P. Livingston, Piano Tuning and Service 781-237-9178 Piano Technicians Guild, associate member (Boston chapter) Website- http://greglivingston.weebly.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100927/67db2bb4/attachment.htm>
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