Posted by Susan on Thursday, 12 March 2009, at 7:10 a.m.:
In Reply to: cleaning carbon reeds posted by Allen on Wednesday, 11 March 2009, at 10:56 a.m.:
I have used emery cloth on individual dents, real slow, but effective. Polish the "outside" with 0000 steel wool to remove surface rust before you decide to work on the insides.
If you know an auto shop that does sand blasting with glass beads or walnut hulls, that's the best way to remove serious rust without ruining the reeds - you will need to re-tape the pitchbands. In fact it might be best to put new tape on before blasting and re-tape later, to protect the pitchbands.
Lots of people use naval jelly but it can corrode the metal too, leaving it's own kind of rough spots, sometimes as bad as rust.
What we really need is a reed cleaning warp yarn with built in gentle abrasives... anybody out there inventing one?