While bringing home piano #5 (an antique Bord, made in France about
1870, made of unveneered mahogany) I happened to stop for gasoline.
The action was laying out where the service station owner could see it.
It was _extremely_ dusty and dirty, and he offered to blow the dirt out
with compressed air.

I agreed, and we stood the action up.  Using a smaller air orifice, we
cleaned the action almost spotless.  The air was black with soot for 10
feet around.  Out of curiosity we directed the air on the hammers and
it cleaned them to bright felt again.  I expected that we would have
blown dirt into the felted bushings, but that didn't seem to happen.

It saved a lot of dirt from falling on my workbench.  The service sta-
tion owner confided to me that he had upped the pressure to 125 psi.
In this case I didn't have anything to loose because I planned on
replacing pins.  But the surprise was finding the hammers fresh and
clean looking.  I wouldn't try this with my Mason & Hamlin.

Did someone say there is a therapy group for piano collectors?

Bill Chapman
AMICA Membership Secretary