alex_holden

Yes, furniture spray polishes often have silicone in them. It is cheap and gives a quick and easy shine but can cause problems in the future if you ever want to refinish the item.

No, I haven't used that product (or any sort of spray polish). I have applied various mild leather balms - sparingly - on bellows that had dry or squeaky leather. Meltonian shoe cream is one I've used, another is Renapur leather balsam. I imagine you might need to reapply them occasionally.

Two row (i.e. 20 button) D/A concertinas exist but are not very common. The D row is lower in pitch than the A row. For example: https://anglopiano.com/?da-20 Another common key combination you might consider is G/D: https://anglopiano.com/?gd-20 If you get an Anglo with three rows, the third row contains assorted accidental notes that let you play in extra keys and some reversals. 30 button C/G is the most common type. It is available with two slightly different versions of the third row; Wheatstone or Jeffries style: https://anglopiano.com/?cg-wheatstone-30 https://anglopiano.com/?cg-jeffries-30 It is common for Anglo players who play in many keys to own more than one instrument.

I'd start by just rubbing it with a cloth dampened with slightly soapy water and then buffing it off with a soft dry cloth. If that doesn't cure it, Super Nicko instrument cleaner is very good: https://beareandson.co.uk/super-nicko-31-p.asp A little bit goes a long way.

Are you talking about polished wood, metal end plates, or leather bellows?

There are several other possible causes for buttons that aren't closing properly: misalignment between the lever and the end plate hole, pad catching on an adjacent pad or a wall, tight bushing hole, sticky gunk accumulated on the button shaft, worn or faulty lever pivot, lever being held down by something protruding from the underside of the end plate.

A link to the earlier post.

That's a Donegan Optivisor, as I mentioned earlier in the topic. You can buy the lens plates in six different magnification levels. I have the DA-2 (1.5x), DA-3 (1.75x), DA-5 (2.5x) and DA-10 (3.5x). Note that the stronger the lens, the closer you have to get your face to the work to focus on it, and the greater the eye and neck strain they cause when using them for long periods (the glass is thicker and heavier too). I use the DA-2 lenses about 80% of the time (they are often on my head in the workshop so I can flip them down whenever I want to look closely at something). The DA-3 lenses are often useful for working on finer details, the DA-5 lenses are occasionally handy for very close work (e.g. removing a splinter from your finger), and the DA-10 lenses are so strong and uncomfortable that I practically never use them (it's usually easier to use a microscope instead). I also have the optional flip-in loupe attachment but don't really use it as I found it often got in the way.

If you can already play hands-free harmonica I don't think it would be too difficult to accompany it with some simple chords on EC.

I think they are probably not anything recognised as a standard today. If anything it might have been an obscure size used by 19th century Swiss clockmakers; one of the ancestors of the BA standard. As @Alex West said, retapping it 10BA or going up to 9 BA might work.

It looks like the advert has been deleted.

I noticed this advert over on Facebook yesterday and thought it might be of general interest to the concertina community. (Note: I am not in any way associated with this business or its sale.) Original advert: https://www.facebook.com/groups/526202860856311/posts/3245310335612203 I think "Mrs Simona" was featured in the Concertine Italia factory tour video.

See also Fig. 48 and 49 in this article: https://www.concertinajournal.org/articles/charles-jeffries-and-his-sons/

Yes, mine are 15° from vertical and stop as close as I dare (a small fraction of a mm) to the top face. Other makers may vary.

I don't agree with the statement about vent relief reducing the friction between the tongue and the frame. There shouldn't be any friction with either style of reed frame. If there is any contact between the two it either doesn't sound at all, or makes an annoying buzz. I do agree that a reed assembly with vent relief is less restrictive to the air flow, but I suspect that has more to do with reducing how much of the cycle the reed is mostly blocking the vent. With a relieved vent the reed only interrupts the air flow very briefly whereas with an accordion-style unrelieved vent there is a more gradual opening up of the vent as the reed passes through it. Surprisingly this improved air flow doesn't seem to translate to greater air consumption from relieved reed assemblies. I think a relieved vent is more responsive and has more dynamic range, and the tone is a bit different in a way that myself and some (many?) players prefer. I don't like to try to describe the difference in words because it's so subjective. I don't know if there is any significant difference in the performance of a screwed clamp vs a rivet. One benefit of screws is you can easily take it apart if you ever need to adjust the fit or replace the tongue. If you are buying unrelieved reed assemblies there may be some benefit to taking them apart and manually filing in some relief (anecdotally I have heard that there is at least one maker doing this). That would be much easier to do if the tongue is screwed down rather than riveted. Only relieving the tip might help a bit; I'm not sure how much difference it would make. It's important when relieving the vent to not accidentally widen the top face, increasing the gap between the tongue and the frame.