Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Center pin lube, "green stuff"

I have a Steinway S that has hammer rail gumminess. This happened before and the tech used some green stuff according to the owner. I thought it might have been Joe Goss's goose juice but it's really green. Doesn't appear to have soaked in too far.
Anybody know what it is?
Keith

Steinway used to soak the hammer and whippen flanges with a paraffin in naptha solution. Over time the acids in the stuff corrode the brass and the oil sort of "rots". This results in very sluggish action centers. It is best to replace parts.

I have taken some well preserved actions and replaced just the flanges while also rinsing the felt bushings in acetone and working the gunk out of the felt with a center pin and onto a rag one side at a time.

mineral spirits dissolves wax
I don't think I was seeing corrosion of the pins.

Is there a guesstimate on the years Steinway did this?
Thanks Ed

Too Many Years! Even the teflon ones had paraffin in the hammer flanges.

make it a joy to glue paper strips ..! and even more if some silly guy literally covered the parts with sprayed teflon !

I wonder if it was "Wurlon" spray? A green cure for verdigris. How appropriate.

certainly some chemical may stop the brass corrosion, but cleaning the cloth ?

the parts where brushed or put in a bath of parrafin and benzine, bushing cloth inclueded ?

that is a strange choice, vaselin oil is known for not "drying" hence its use for French polishing.

I dont know about parrafin oil. it should not be acid anyway so I dont understand the reaction with brass or with the cashmere cloth.

but I think even fire arm oils as Ballistol turn to soap and harden after enough time.

I cannot answer Keith's original question, but can shed some light on Isaac's question.



Hydrocarbon-based oils and fats oxidise with time (rancidification, autoxidation). The products of this process include various organic aldehydes, ketones and acids, possibly also fatty acids, organic peroxides etc., most of which probably contribute to the corrosion.

Oils go rancid but this wax dissolved in Naptha. The Naptha would evaporate leaving a wax coating that would prevent humidity swings from affecting the wood. Wax doesn't go rancid?? and is basically inert but I do need to read the book I got on preservation techniques because all wax is not equal.
The owner said a tech used a lube that was green.
What was that Wurden stuff??

Excuse me ,, "Wurlon" center pin lube,, what was it??

It wasn't a center-pin lubricant. It was something the Wurlitzer company used on the tops of jacks - a slippery teflon-like spray material that was green.