Musical ashtray and what to do with it

At some point in my early adult years, I started noticing that as humans, we waste a lot. While I was never a fan of plastic straws or Styrofoam take out containers, I used them because other options were simply not available whenever I forget to bring my own reusable utensils or containers. And in my family, we didn’t have skills to fix broken appliances or furniture. It was much easier to throw them into the trash and be done with the eye sore. Having seen garbage flowing from the ocean to beaches and witnessing great economic disparity in my travels, I am increasing drawn to the dialogue policy intellectuals and stewards of the earth are having about sustainability. I came to the conclusion that I need to start restoring and reusing. And from here, I’ll start with my first experience with partial restoration of an antique piano that shouldn't go to the landfill.

When buying a used piano, based on the online literature that I had read, I knew I had to look for cracks in the soundboard, rust on the strings and test the keys out for stickiness on the most basic inspection. Check, check and check. I also played piano twenty years ago and I still have some Chopin passages memorized so it was not like I went in not knowing how to distinguish the sound quality of pianos. The sounds from this "grand piano in upright form" were incredible. I paid the seller $400 for this piano, but unfortunately, when it was delivered, it became apparent that the piano at one point was owned by a smoker. When I went to see the piano, the piano was very close to the front door so the inflow of air must have cleared out a lot of the smell. I noticed the seller spraying something to clean the piano case which didn’t struck me as too odd, but in hindsight, she was probably spraying something like Febreze to mask the odour. There was a smell to the piano when I opened up the top, but I just thought the smell was the odour that you get from buying old furniture.

Now, I had spent $200 hiring movers to move the piano to my house. If I were to give up at this point and drag the piano to the dump, that’s another $200, which would mean $800 gone down the drain. And it defeats my goal of reusing .

Naturally, I referred to Google and asked the mighty search engine, “How to get rid of cigarette smell in pianos”? The search turned up with lame webpages written by overly optimistic housewives who recommended Febreze and DIY amateurs recommended baking soda and a mild vinegar wash as solutions to getting rid of cigarette smells in furniture. A second hand piano store recommended having a technician clean the piano, but it would not entirely clear out the smell. They made it clear that technicians would tell you to mask the remainder of the smell away with a diffuser near by or with the use of some scented candles.

Determined that there must be another way, I looked at piano technician services. For starters, I searched for offers on piano cleaning services and researched what that exactly encompasses. On Kijiji, there are piano tuning services and piano restoration services. After some run around, I found out actual piano technicians (the ones who have reconditioning and or rebuilding (restoring) experience) could offer a vacuuming service for $100 ish. This is rarely advertised and is something you have to ask. Accordingly to one website I had found, pianos should be vacuumed every decade. In my opinion, once every 30 years is probably realistic if the piano is loved and taken care of in a well-kept house.

After the vacuum cleaning, there was an 80% improvement to the smell of the piano. But this smell still bothered me and I wanted a solution that brings an 100% solution to the odour problem. I continued with the question in my head: shouldn’t there be a solution in this day and age for a problem like this given that in the early part of the century, a lot of people smoked and a lot of homes had pianos in them. And then a piano technician forum caught my eye. The topic was indeed the topic I was looking for: How to get cigarette smell out of my piano? Cory Care Products commented that they sell a Tobacco Odor Eliminator Spray. Another piano technician identified a process involving using a dry sponge, odour negating mix, smoke odour wet wipes, thermal fogging, etc. all using Cory Care Products.

I proceeded to check out the Cory Care Products page. Environmentally safe, non-toxic, eh? Shipping is going to cost as much as the product. Worth a try as this appears to be a niche line of products. But how come they don’t sell these smoke odour wet wipes? I call their contact us line. We don’t sell these to the general public was the response. Now, I am eager to get my hands on these wet wipes as I wanted to try everything I can to get rid of the odour so I convinced the owner to sell a pack to me. I ended up buying a wood cleaner as their line of products is quite impressive from a piano maintenance perspective.

I hired the same technician I had used for vacuuming to open the piano again and to spray the action with the Tobacco Odor Eliminator spray. Even though he has been in the piano business for two decades, he was not aware of such a product. I put on gloves and used the wet wipes on the horizontal wooden surface of the keys, which were kept in position. An astonishing amount of nicotine build up was picked up by these wipes. A disgusting amount was picked up at the bottom of the piano internal too. The wet wipes were highly effective in picking up anything that stuck to the wood. However, what the owner of Cory Care didn’t think to tell me was that these wipes had a very strong counteractant odour. And that off gassing of the chemical reaction would occur for the next two months in declining strength. This is ironic: I bought the counteractants to eliminate the tobacco smell, but how do I get rid of the spray smells after using it?

Zeolite volcanic rocks and an air purifier were my answer. From my previous experience of leaving bottles in a car, I already knew volcanic rocks work great at absorbing smells. I ordered a bag of Gonzo volcanic rocks and put them inside the piano at the bottom next to the pedals. After a week or so, I took the bottom panel off of the piano and saw blackened areas on the volcanic rocks, and that any musty, tobacco, or counteractant smells had pretty much dissipated away. The Gonzo volcanic rocks absorbed a significant portion of the smell. However, the action part of the piano was still smelly.

Why does zeolite work? According to general online sources, zeolite is formed over millions of years as volcanic ash slowly changed and crystallized when exposed to alkaline water. The crystals have an interconnecting lattice structure, forming a honeycomb of interconnecting channels with a negative charge. Within these channels are positively charged ions that attract and trap other materials, including those that cause odors. Because of the honeycomb structure, zeolite is able to absorb moisture and gas molecules that total about 65 percent of the weight of the zeolite itself. The material has virtually no fragrance, and it releases nothing as it absorbs other materials.

Back to the spray and wipes, I proceeded to call Cory Care back and the owner explained that that’s why they don’t sell the wipes to the public as they have a shop to air out the smell. He confirmed it wasn’t toxic, but unfortunately I would have to air it out. Work and colder temperature prevented me from airing it out as much as I would like, so I knew that given with the good results from using Gonzo volcanic rocks, I ordered some two more smaller bags of volcanic rocks that I could easily hang inside the piano. The progress was slow. This was because the felts in the hammers absorbed and retained a lot of the smoke odour. To speed up the odour eliminating process, I decided to order one more big bag of Gonzo volcanic rocks so as a result, I had around 5 lb of rocks hung using a very much DIY method inside the piano, above the action, for a few more days. The smell decreased slightly but I was not satisfied.

I also started thinking about third-hand smoke and wondered if by neutralizing the odour particles, if it would still be harmful if inhaled. I regretted not looking at this sooner but honestly, there is not a whole lot of research done in this area. Third-hand smoke is trapped on surfaces like walls and ceilings, and in household dust and carpets left over by previous residents. Needless to say, there is third-hard smoke trapped in the felt of the piano internals. The toxins in lingering cigarette smoke include toluene, formaldehyde, acetone and ammonia.

Going back online, it was interesting to see how many people claimed household plants could absorb toxins. According to studies of plants, there are powerful air-cleaning plants endorsed by NASA’s study. Certain plants clear certain toxins better than the rest. Spider plant, snake plant, peace lily, Chinese evergreen, bamboo palm, lady palm, etc remove specific volatile organic compounds (including the third hand smoke toxins). While my local garden store did not offer lady palm, it had dracaenas palm, which is said to remove formaldehyde, xylene and toluene. A snake plant will remove acetone and ammonia. And so I proceeded to buy these as well.

However, there are some contentious debates about the effectiveness of plants. Air purifier manufacturers refute claims that household plants cover enough square footage to effective cleanse the air. They also pointed out unless the odour molecules travel in the path toward the plants, those particles would not be scrubbed. As a result, they insist only their true HEPA air purifier and activated charcoal filters would do the job. It is not uncommon for high end purifiers (~$1000) to contain more than 5lb of activated charcoal. Activated charcoal is another porous material known to be strong odor absorber that is commonly recommended to eliminate smoke odor. To date, I have not found any convincing comparison against zeolite and activated charcoal. Zeolite rocks could be recharged under sunlight and activated charcoal is used and disposed.

Pushing on, I knew that it was time to have more done. Although the smoke eliminator spray was used on the wool felt part of the piano action, there were parts of the action, as well as the back side of the keys that held onto dust and smoke particles. As I read more on piano technician forums, I learned that some technicians offer soda blasting services. Soda blasting is a process where they blast baking soda at a high pressure into the wooden parts of the piano mechanism to clean it of debris. Note that in my city, I had only found two businesses that offer this service. After soda blasting done, the wood looks new again. Baking soda is also an odor absorber and for some technicians, it’s part of the process to clean smoke odour. I mentioned earlier that wool traps odours. Given the condition of the hammers where the wool felt is glued on to for hammering the strings, I found a trustworthy piano restorer to quote its replacment. Between the hammer and damper replacement, along with regulation, it would cost around $3000 - $3500. It seems like a lot, but after factoring the fact that a new piano (made in China) of much inferior quality would cost at least $5000 with an expected life of maybe 30 years, the cost to invest in a higher quality antique piano that sounds like a grand piano would be a better purchase. Luckily for me, when I did my research, I knew that I wanted a Heintzman built during the golden era (1900-1930) of piano building in Canada. A few technicians have told me an equivalent piano built today would be worth upwards of $40,000. Once you have heard the sounds from this power house, then I think you can truly understand the comparison and the value you are getting out of it.

When I had made the leap to get the repairs done, the piano technician my piano action and keys for soda blasting and felt replacement. That allowed me the opportunity to use diluted vinegar and water to wipe down wooden parts of the piano where I could not previously access. Diluted vinegar and water did wonders to pick up the grime. In fact, I recommend using this over the counteractant wipes. At this point, I could still smell a faint cigarette smell and I am convinced it comes from the strings. Restringing is a significant cost that I wanted to avoid and again I felt frustrated that there seems like no end to this cleaning process. Back to the google search engine I went. And this time, I found new articles about how technicians had used a vacuum with a reverse vacuum option to blow out pressurized air. When this is applied to the strings, the dust and debris would be blown off. Luckily for me, my husband had such a function in his line of Festool tools for woodwork. With my air purifier and vacuum nearby, he used his Festool suction / air blow out unit to blow at the strings. I captured the dust and debris with the vacuum and air purifier and further cleaned out the piano this way. There was a lot of dust and with that dust it took out a few more percentage points of remaining odor. By this point, I would say we were at 98% smoke smell free. I would say the 2% is due to the dust that we could not get out behind the strings. On the piano bed where the keys once laid, I was aware of the cigarette smell up close when I put my nose close to it so I put the smaller bags of zeolite rocks on there. Within two days, those zeolite rocks absorbed the odour. That’s how I fully confirmed zeolite rocks work.

When my piano action and keys came back, they looked brand new and the ivory keys were evenly white. I thought I had cleaned the keys well with toothpaste and yogurt, but the professionals have better tricks and I was told that there was a lot of grimy stuff on the keys that were successfully removed. All that aside, there was a new smell now. The smell of old wood. While the smell of old wood wasn’t worrisome, it did bother me a bit. So alas, here I am again, trying to use zeolite to on the piano keys to see if they would further absorb. I couldn’t quite close the keyboard because the pouches were too big so then I resorted to stuffing charcoal briquettes inside used socks. Activated charcoal works better in theory but I wanted to test charcoal briquettes as many have attested to it for removing faint smells. After leaving them in for a week, I could say that the old wood smell has reduced. If I am able to take the keys out, I would do a wipe down with diluted vinegar. I think that would fully remove the old wood odour. But for now, I spray diluted vinegar into the air near the keys and do a wipe whenever I notice the old wood smell. It has been on a constant decline. The last thing I have done is buy an odor eliminator gel. The one I chose to go with is Fresh Wave. Fresh Wave claims to use the power of plant oils to neutralize tobacco smoke odor and other odor molecules. I am not sure I believe that, because I think the gel serves to push out more concentrated plant oil odour molecules (they are pleasant smelling by the way) to overcome other unpleasant smells. Nonetheless, I could say I’ve tried it all now and have become a very good resource for odour removal around the house.

How do I feel about the entire experience? Well, professionals who restore pianos (and have a ventilated shop to do this in as not all piano restorers would have a ventilated shop to work in) would have done it in a more efficient way. They might not have used zeolites, but just having space to air it out would have been highly effective. They would have probably charged me double or triple of what I had paid for in terms of material, and requested that I move the piano to their facilities. Some may even insist to refinish the wood, and unfortunately, that would mean the cost could go up to $10,000 in restoring your piano. Piano technicians could be like car mechanics. Some are honest and some are not. Piano restoration is also a niche business. Like I mentioned earlier, I had only found two in my city who could do soda blasting. These are things you should consider if you happened to have bought a smelly piano. It was a learning experience for me to go through with this, and it was a lesson that I wish to share to educate others if they find themselves in a similar situation. There were others before me who just didn’t know what to do when confronted with a musical ash tray. I hope that for others after me, when confronted with the same issue, would get a honest insight into this whole process and make better decisions. Good luck and feel free to share your experiences!

P.S. There is another story with the bench I will share in my next post.