Re the green verdigris.
Many (many) moons ago I was told (possibly by CR?) that wrapping the pipes
in pure silk would help prevent it so I bought a second hand silk shirt from
a charity shop (50p in a clearance sale) and cut it into suitable lengths.
I rarely play the pipes these days (old age and infirmity has set in) but
they don't get half as green as they used to and what is there comes off
with a brisk rub from a kitchen roll (the metal is NS, by the way) and
that's after several months shut in the box behind the couch in the living
room.
They used to go green very quickly before that so it does seem to work.
Can't really comment on the stuck parts although the wood for pipes doesn't
tend to expand much in the damp I would think (may be wrong) as it's so
dense and oiled (I hope you do oil them) anyway.
I've made a note of the heat treatment "just in case" the oil on the pipes
goes hard and they stick (although the medical paraffin seems to prevent
that unlike some stuff I have used in the past) as I presume that the heat
will soften it.
Colin Hill
----- Original Message -----
From: "Julia Say" <[email protected]>
To: "Northumbrian Small Pipes" <[email protected]>; "Victor Eskenazi"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 9:09 AM
Subject: [NSP] Re: [nsp] re-conditioning ...
On 8 Jan 2011, Victor Eskenazi wrote:
my pipes have sat for too long
1 - the weather here is very damp
Where is "here" (roughly)?
turns out the joints are stuck.
any suggestions on how to unstick them - without waiting for the right
brief immersion in hot water or gently heating with a hot air gun on a
lowish
setting (depends on model), followed by a gentle twisting action. I'm
assuming this
is primarily the drone slides though the air gun would work on chanter
stock joints
too. Mind the chanter foot if it's plastic - the gun could melt it if used
incautiously. And mind your fingers on any ferrule in the area you are
heating.
2 - any suggestions on cleaning the green off the brass?
Methylated spirit (the purple stuff in the UK -industrial alcohol
elsewhere?),
applied with a cloth, followed by brass polish. And don't use olive oil or
keep
your set shut in a box in the future - it aggravates the verdigris problem
at the
least. The jury is out on whether it actually causes it.
Good luck
Julia
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