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Hi all,

I have a new-to-me YUS5 which I am very happy with, however the Ivorite keys have slight wear/stain marks from use. It is obvious the marks are from playing and not the environment because the marks are only present on the central couple of octaves. The discolouration/wear is only slight (I didn't even notice when auditioning the piano), however I would like to polish/clean them if possible. Unfortunately a gentle clean with a soft damp cotton cloth hasn't helped. I think it will require a mild abrasive like toothpaste or baking soda.

I have done lots of googling on how to polish marks off keys and most discussions focus on plastic and ivory, but not Ivorite.

Does anyone have a tip for me?

Many thanks as always.

I can't advise about the discoloring, but any piano that gets played will have key surfaces that are scratched.

Hi Rjt,

Like Dave, I can’t advise you on the Ivorite specifically, but I recently purchased an older Yamaha C7 with the rare, one-piece ivory key-tops. They too were rather dirty when I got the piano. In fact, I knew the key-tops were most likely the one piece ivory when I first looked at the piano because the dirt was ground into the grain of the ivory and the grain was very visible and detailed; and, every key-top had a different grain.

The process I used to clean the key-tops was to take some white vinegar and water and a clean cotton cloth, dampen the cloth in the solution and clean the key-tops. This got a lot of the dirt off and the key-tops started looking a lot better/cleaner, but, like you said, still had some dirt on them (and some slight yellowing in some places).

Next, I actually removed the action from the piano and took the action bracket off the key board assembly, removed all the keys and buffed the key-tops lightly with some 0000 steel wool. That process went a long way in cleaning the ground-in dirt off the surface of the key-tops. However, afterward the key-tops were slightly dull from cleaning them with the steel wool. Then, I took some Colgate whitening-tooth paste and polished the key-tops (with a lot of elbow-grease). They turned out great, even though there was still some yellowing in some places, especially between the sharps where they didn’t get much sunlight. All-in-all they turned out great!

I think the texture of the ivorite material is more similar to ivory than it is plastic.

Best of luck to you with your key-top cleaning project!

Rick

Thanks. I tried toothpaste last night. It helped but didn't completely do the job. I will have to try something more aggressive. Perhaps steel wool, auto cutting paste, or a drill polishing pad.

Rjt, it might go faster if you pull the action and remove the keys one by one. Be careful not to depress the keys as you slide out the action.

I play one old Steinway occasionally and the keys are extremely slippery. I've cleaned those keys every time I play that piano to no avail; it's not oil or polish, the keys are just really smooth. I've thought of bringing along sandpaper and just lightly roughing up the surface. I'm not sure how that would be received though.

Sorry, I thought you had a grand piano. Taking the keys out one by one in an upright should be pretty easy and I'd go that route if I were you.

Report back how it went.

I would love to take the keys out, but I don't know how to do it. If it is easy for a fairly 'handy' person then I might attempt it. Otherwise I might just suffer the awkwardness of polishing them in place. I'll have to do some research.

Remove the large rectangular panel that is in front of you as you play. The part that covers the keys (I forget the name) might just lift out; I believe mine did. You'll see what has to be removed though I'm sure someone here will be much more elaborate. This isn't rocket science.

You'll see just how easy this is once you remove a few pieces.

Hi Rick:

I would have to advise not to use vinegar. Acetic acid is a solvent for many glues, and ivory is porous. There was a book written decades ago, called "How to clean everything" with this bad advice, and this advice has been repeated over the years to the point of being sage advice. Never use anything on a piano without checking with a tech or the manufacturer.

Take care

Steve

Plastic suppliers sell plastic polishes.

Hi Steve, and thanks for the professional advice. I actually didn’t use very much vinegar in my cleaning solution at all, but I’ll take note of your advice. As you said, I have read many times that highly diluted vinegar and water was a good and safe cleaning agent for all types of piano key-tops, but I guess not.

Thanks again,

Rick

I also own a YUS 5 which I keep scrupulously clean. One day, my 5 year old son returned from school and headed straight for the piano and proceeded to play his favourite tune without his washing his hands (breaking a cardinal rule in my household). His last lesson for the day was art and a couple of his fingers were stained with black ink or paint and some of it left marks on the ivorite keys. I immediately wiped it away with a damp cloth. All the black stains were removed but a faint yellowish tinge was left in their place. I tried a number of remedies, including vinegar, piano key cleaner, diluted gentle detergent to no avail.

Then one day I chanced upon someone removing stains from white bathroom tiles using a melanin based scouring sponge to astonishing effect. I went out and bought myself one of those and managed to remove the stains using one of those damp sponges. Only a few gentle strokes completely removed the yellowish stains.

Give it a try!

Thanks for the tip. Although I have no idea what a melanin based scouring sponge is.... Could I trouble you to paste a link to a picture or a shop selling one? I tried googling for one but didn't get very far.

Many thanks....

I think the poster is referring to melamine foam... Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

I don't know what the risk of this is, but they are pretty gentle yet effective for other applications.

Hi,

You can try polishing the Ivorite with a compresed wool polishing wheel.

Lluís.

Apologies! Melamine was what I was referring to!

My new C3 is also getting these minor little scratches on the keys but I think it is cool, makes me realize I am really using my piano. Since I like these minor little use scratches so much and there as so few down in the bass register I now practice my scales down there.

I am not kidding, this is how I feel. This is a tool and tools that are used show wear with use.

Don't worry, be happy.

Have you considered asking a music store or piano tuner for advice? People who maintain instruments (new and used) on a daily basis are likely to have great resources at their fingertips and may have some great advice for you.

In that your piano has the new and improved Yamaha ivorite,it should not be too difficult to clean it's surface. Now with the older recall Yamaha ivorite, you actually had to wetsand them and buff them to reseal the pores. A combination of alcohol,orange oil and rubbing compound works great on real ivories.
As Steve mentioned,one always has to be aware of what one uses in that breaking down the glue/adhesion is a bad deal. A precaution if one uses bleach on their ivories. I'm not crazy about steel wool in that it scratches the keys no matter how fine.

Here is a picture of my one-piece ivory keys on my Yamaha C7. My cleaning and polishing project actually turned out pretty good, though they are not as shiny as plastic keys.

I tried to take some close-up pics of the keys so you could actually see the grain in the ivory, my they didn't turn out too good.

Rick