Condition of reeds

[Snoopz]

You could try “lighter fluid”, which, at least here in Germany, is a kind of “Benzin” aka gasoline.

What we call “Waschbenzin”/„Wasbenzine“ or similar here in Europe is called “mineral spirits” in English.

Another thing to try would be blotting paper and a hair dryer or iron set to low. That way you cannot get solvents anywhere you don’t want them.

 

[debra]

Chisel is a good idea. And I’ll look into cleaning benzene. How good is “good enough” when it comes to taking off old wax.

The right answer is 100% clean, but to go from 0-90 is the same effort as going from 90-100. Not sure if that last 10% makes a difference

It doesn't have to be perfect. What's important is that it looks and feels flat. When you put a reed plate on it should have absolutely no wobble.

 

[Ventura]

there are a lot of safe tools i use to get the majority of wax off..
small dull rounded tip kitchen knife/flexible stainless blade

my weller (trigger) soldering gun with the flat rounded tip barely heated

a hot knife tool from doing furniture repair
(the tiny oven warms your knife enough to melt/smooth out varnish sticks)

and then of course simple coffee filter-paper laid on, then run a heated tool tip
over it to wick up the last layer of (melting) wax from the surface

i have never even considered a tool that would be dangerous enough to
engage and possibly damage the wood reedblock, which on cheaper
accordions is often not much more than a house of cards glued onto
a decent wood base.. carved/routed reedblocks are obviously stronger
but still i can't see risking nicking or gouging them

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

regarding a blanket ban on (running) dremel tools

you see, the thing is, it really wants a delicate touch to tune reeds..
the objective is to change the relative mass in a bare minimum manner
to achieve the desired result.. removed steel does not grow back..

a running dremel tool can remove an incredible amount of mass
in an instant

in the hands of a ham fisted amateur (who, to begin with, is hardly
likely to be touching the reed in the best spot) then having to re-touch
higher or lower again.. again.. again..

and then, the amplification of the internet.. we go from one idiot
giving advise somewhere on how to tune reeds based on his or her uneducated,
ill advised method, which seemed to work for a minute and so gets bragged,
then repeated by someone who read it, then repeated again until it becomes
internet fact

oh, by the way.. those previously bragged upon dremeled reeds have been
snapping in two because of the heat-induced loss of temper, the weakness
in the vicinity of the flex point.. and did that ever get re-reported by the surprised
original wizard-of-the-repairshop poster ?

of course a professional who knows their stuff can use any tool they
see fit that will work, but even in skilled hands, a split second from
a bee in your shop flying past your head is all it takes for a running Dremel
to ruin a reed

so for the benefit and protection of the amateur repair people, i truly
prefer the speculative advise of idiots to be sent into a black hole,
lest a well meaning and even rather careful normal person be fooled
into following some actually really bad, though seemingly reasonable,
advise, and then ruining their accordion

and the only good Dremel tool is one with a cold, dead battery

maybe this sounds harsh, but disinformation gets wings on the internet

I totally agree that an unskilled person will ruin a reed much faster with a power tool than a hand tool. I personally prefer the tactile feedback of hand files and use them about 95% of the time. I do find a Dremel, on a low speed with a small diamond bit can be useful for raising the pitch of low bass reeds. I've seen plenty of bad work with Dremels (and with hand files too) but they can be fine when used correctly, in my experience.