Barb’s Suggestions

Care of Lacquer Finishes:

Traditional lacquer is a soft finish that is hand rubbed at the factory with steel wool to create a deliberate scratch pattern on the surface.  This scratch pattern runs in the direction of the grain on a natural finish and in a similar uniform pattern on an ebony finish.  Tiny cross-grain surface scratches will be created if you wipe dust (which often has a grittiness to it) off of the surface with a cloth or your hand, especially if you do this in a circular pattern.  So try to refrain from removing dust in this manner.  The new Swiffer duster is an excellent tool for lifting off dust and seems to work better than a feather or lambs wool duster.  Ideally move the duster in the direction of the grain or satin lines, shaking it off periodically.  When your piano is largely dust free and just has some dust remaining in corners and along hinges, a light use of the Swiffer against the grain, as necessary, will probably not cause you too much trouble with creating cross-grain lines but do exercise caution. 

 After dusting, if any oily or sticky residue needs to be removed, dampen a soft cloth with a solution of water mixed with a drop of dishwashing liquid.  Wipe in the direction of the grain or satin lines.  Then wipe with a dry soft cloth again in the direction of the grain.  If you have extremely light surface marring, not scratches dipping down into the surface, and if you are brave, you might try removing the marring with 0000 steel wool using the water and dishwashing liquid solution as lubrication.  This requires very close attention to the scratch pattern that you will be creating with the steel wool.  You are trying to match the existing pattern and sheen.  It will be much easier if you are attempting this on a small surface rather than the middle of the lid, which I really would not recommend that you attempt unless you practice on a lot of small surfaces.  It would be best to leave that task to those of us with professional experience. 

Care of Polyester Finishes: 

Polyester is a tougher finish than lacquer.  It is either in high gloss or satin.  The high gloss is the highly polished mirror type finish that you can see your reflection in.  The satin finishes are usually a sprayed polyurethane over base coats of polyester.  Scratches can occur if you wipe dust (which often has a grittiness to it) off of the surface with a cloth or your hand, especially if you do this in a circular pattern.  So try to refrain from removing dust in this manner.  The new Swiffer duster is an excellent tool for lifting off dust and seems to work better than a feather or lambs wool duster.  It is not necessary to dust in the direction of the grain on polyester.  

On the high gloss or satin finish, if after dusting any oily or sticky residue needs to be removed, dampen a soft cloth with glass cleaner without ammonia and wipe the area.  Apply the spray to the cloth away from the piano.  Never spray onto a piano surface as you run the risk of overspray reaching the strings, which could rust the strings.  

On the high gloss finish if a general haziness occurs over a period of time, you might be able to regain a bit of the clearness on the surface if you hand polish it with 3M Imperial Hand Glaze #05990 from an auto body supply store like Kar-Color, 903 Hardee Rd, Durham, phone 919-682-5615.  Apply it with a soft cloth and allow it to haze over before polishing with a clean soft cloth.  If this doesn’t work, I can offer you the service of machine buffing to remove scratches.      

To polish the embedded nameplate above the keyboard on a high gloss piano, use 3M Finesse-it II Finishing Material #05928, from Kar-Color.  You can also try Flitz cream polish, available at hardware stores, but it can leave a slight haziness to the surrounding surface so work as tightly on the lettering as possible.  

Adding Color Back to Worn Edges: 

If your piano has edges that have worn bare over the years, you can carefully add color back to them with a Mohawk Pro-Mark II Marker from Klingspor’s Woodworking Shop, 3141 Capital Blvd (Capital Square), Raleigh, phone 919-876-0707.  They come in black and many wood colors.  Permanent markers from office supply stores can also be used but obviously without the same prospect of as good of a color match as the Mohawk furniture markers.  A black permanent marker tends to be bluish in color against an ebony lacquer.