Re: [Harp-L] Jason Ricci's Mongoose Free Harp Cleaning Method





On Jan 7, 2010, at 1:35 PM, Paul Routledge wrote:

Smo-joe,

I have never heard of sealing combs that way. How well did it work?

Paul

Hi Paul. It worked pretty good. It occurred to me after Woodstock. While I had sealed a comb once or twice as a kid with Noxema, the smell was kinda weird for a good while. But I didn't want to spend my meager allowance on frivolities, so, living in a house with a mother and older sisters, I used to steal whatever they had. Noxema, cold creme, whatever. I would heat it to a liquid state and dip the combs for maybe 68 seconds. Charlie Leighton used to use 3 in 1 oil. Yuuuch.

Then, when the hippies were coming back from Woodstock, someone lost a dirty ditty bag and inside were 3 Marine Bands. We put it in lost and found but after a year with no claim, Escheats required us to either send it to Harrisburg to the auction OR destroy it. Since there was virtually no intrinsic value to this stuff, I was to toss it in the dumpster and make out a sheet. So, I 'liberated' the MBs.


Taking them home, I disassembled them (ala Jason Ricci) and proceeded to boil the plates in whatever cleaner we had around. Then I took the combs and dipped them in my mixture. Being in the mountains of Somerset with brutal winters, I used to go through Vapo rub. So I took some and feeling it was too thick (basically vaseline..with camphor and eucalyptus), I watered it down with baby oil. It worked fine and I had the benefit of beneficial vapors for a while. Vapors that I was already used to.

When I came to the list in 2000, I heard about people dipping combs in bees wax. Wow, I started to laugh uncontrollably. Btw, Vapo rub is EVERY bit as volatile as bees wax..maybe more-so...it's the fumes?, so I would melt it electrically. No open flame. Since I have an electric melting pot (for bullets), that wasn't an issue. Oh, and you have to watch the temp.

I kept the nails for the plates but attached the ends with mach screws.





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