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Removing Tobacco Odours


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I know this subject has been raised before but just wanted to see if there have been any advances in the fight against ridding a concertina of the smell of tobacco smoke?!

 

I've had one in the past which I managed to reduce the odour from by disassembling and placing it on a grill tray in an airtight box. The floor of this I filled with baking powder, and also inserted a sock filled with same into the bellows. While it did help absorb away some of the odour it never really eradicated it fully. Even when I fitted a new bellows, valves etc the smell lingered and I can only deduct it was coming from the chamois in the bellows frame. Either that or it had permeated into the very wood.

 

Febreeze seems to work but only temporarily. Has anyone ever tried an anti-fungal foot spray or something else which has helped eliminate the awful odours which some concertinas seem to suffer??

 

Michael.

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I have an antique clay ocarina that had a horrible smell of smoke when I bought it. A chemist suggested I run a stream of ozone through it. I never tried it (and the smell has dissipated somewhat). I don't know if ozone is a good idea with a concertina, what with all the organic materials holding it together.

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A peeled Onion, cut in half and placed in a room will absorb odours.... you could try putting one in your box with the concertina perhaps?

 

It was said that any concertina that had been repaired or tuned by Tommy Willians would stink of the strong pipe tobacco he habitually smoked for weeks afterwards. Eventually the smell either went away or you got used to it <_<

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Thanks for those suggestions folks.

 

Don't know how I'd organise the ozone to even try out, but will look it up online...

 

I've wondered about the onion idea before and concluded that it might absorb one odour up to a point but leave it's own? Has anyone had success with this?

 

The anti-fungal spray sounds like it might be worth trying. I 've mixed in some anti-fungal powder with the baking soda which may help. Will the spray have to be applied to inside the action box? It seems to be harbouring as much odour as the bellows but I'm worried about spraying liquid onto a concertina...

 

Michael.

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Some rug cleaning/washing facilities have an ioniser that produces ozone. This effectively kills stinky odors.

You can buy small units on eBay or Amazon for less than $50. I don't know how effective the units are.

But I bet if you put one of THESE in a box with the concertina, or just put it in the concertina case, it would do the job.

And then I bet you could sell it on for somebody else to use since it is a fairly common problem.

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While I would be quite OK using ozone with a ceramic ocarina, for instance, I would be rather cagey using ozone with so much leather and organic content. A brief waft through might remove the immediate smell, but I would be concerned about the effect of anything longer term.

I suspect the effect might be similar to washing it with a hydrogen peroxide bleach. However, I don't claim expertise.

 

As you say this has been discussed before - you might get some tips from a search, here or on melodeon.net (maybe accordion forums, too) for nicotine or tobacco.

 

Febreze and bicarb of soda seem to be the favourites, tea/teabags has been suggested. From de-cigaretting a camper van I found that a good surface clean helped a lot, obviously you are limited on cardboard, cloth and leather but a gentle clean could help.

 

If you do find the magic bullet, please post it here as I have a Lachenal that needs the treatment!

 

Malcolm

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The anti fungal foot spray is not a powder spray, that would be asking for clogging up reeds. It is a fine mist that if you just lightly spray will sweeten things right away. As long as you lightly mist and allow to dry before further application it will do no damage.

 

Really I think this is the magic bullet.

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The anti fungal foot spray is not a powder spray, that would be asking for clogging up reeds. It is a fine mist that if you just lightly spray will sweeten things right away. As long as you lightly mist and allow to dry before further application it will do no damage.

 

Really I think this is the magic bullet.

As the odor is not caused by the growth of a fungus (unlike foot odor), I can't imagine how the presence of an anti-fungal drug in the spray should be of any advantage here.

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I once replaced bellows but it helped only half way to chase away the bad breath of previous owners. The problem is that tobacco air settles in every corner of the concertina. This asks for cleaning reeds, action plates inside the bellows, replacing pads and valves++. But I was lazy and sprayed a neutral kind of deodorant spray inside the bellows. It helped to chase away the bad smell (or it damaged my smelling abilities).

 

Apart from tobacco - there is the fungi smell - it is a completely different story about mold, eating leather and hide glue, spreading through the entire concertina to make it difficult to solve this problem. Chorine may be an agressive and far to wet way to attack a concertina. There is a biological way of atacking fungi. Mould can be killed with cinamon. Maybe it can help to open up the smelly concertina, put cinamon powder on every part - keep it dry of course - after a day clean the powder. I have no idea what cinamon does to steel reeds, but I guess that it is far less agressive then chlorine....

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Re: I would be rather cagey using ozone with so much leather and organic content.

 

No worries there. We used an ozone generator to deodorize woolen oriental rugs worth many thousands of dollars with never a problem. I am not at all concerned that the ozone generated would hurt an instrument. And the treatment worked well on huge rugs.

 

I ordered one of THESE. I will use it in the car and keep the offending items in the car while the unit is running. The ionizer got mostly good reviews in Amazon. For $5 I can take the chance that it works as advertised.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone tried this stuff?

 

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=10175&cat=2,42194,40727,10175

 

Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.

 

It can't hurt, and might help...

 

Don

I don't know 'bout 'bakker smoke, but I have used the same mineral in animal rooms and it does help with the musty urine smell from concentrations of small rodents.

 

Alan

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Has anyone tried this stuff?

 

http://www.leevalley...194,40727,10175

 

Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.

 

It can't hurt, and might help...

 

Don

 

I have read a lot about this volcanic granular ash as well, it looks the business. I have just received two large duet Aeolas for service & repair, both stink beyond being playable, the usual musty, bottom of ashtray, with a dash of unwashed armpit.

 

I opened up the better of the two and my wife left the room,the cat shortly afterwards. Any way , I cannot find a supply in the UK. If anyone else knows of a source please let me know.

 

Dave

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Has anyone tried this stuff?

 

http://www.leevalley...194,40727,10175

 

Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.

 

It can't hurt, and might help...

 

Don

 

I have read a lot about this volcanic granular ash as well, it looks the business. I have just received two large duet Aeolas for service & repair, both stink beyond being playable, the usual musty, bottom of ashtray, with a dash of unwashed armpit.

 

I opened up the better of the two and my wife left the room,the cat shortly afterwards. Any way , I cannot find a supply in the UK. If anyone else knows of a source please let me know.

 

Dave

Is this just pumice?

In which case pumice is readily available from furniture finish materials suppliers (traditionally used in French polishing).

Edited by SteveS
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The material is called clinoptilolite. If you google enough you can find some serious looking, independent looking reports of its use as a deodorizer, as well as a few other things, some more associated with "health food" shops.

 

There seems to be one major distributor - Lee Valley - and a mixture of reviews claiming total success or total failure for the same usage.

 

One more serious site spoke of its attraction to ammonia (IIRC). May work better for some smells than others, on balance I thought it sounded worth a try and at least fairly harmless.

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Has anyone tried this stuff?

 

http://www.leevalley...194,40727,10175

 

Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.

 

It can't hurt, and might help...

 

Don

 

I have read a lot about this volcanic granular ash as well, it looks the business. I have just received two large duet Aeolas for service & repair, both stink beyond being playable, the usual musty, bottom of ashtray, with a dash of unwashed armpit.

 

I opened up the better of the two and my wife left the room,the cat shortly afterwards. Any way , I cannot find a supply in the UK. If anyone else knows of a source please let me know.

 

Dave

You might try a farm supply store as I read that it is used to keep animal stalls from smelling badly. Or maybe a veterinary.

 

Don

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Has anyone tried this stuff?

 

http://www.leevalley...194,40727,10175

 

Lee Valley is a reputable store and I intend to try this myself unless somebody warns me off it.

 

It can't hurt, and might help...

 

Don

 

I have read a lot about this volcanic granular ash as well, it looks the business. I have just received two large duet Aeolas for service & repair, both stink beyond being playable, the usual musty, bottom of ashtray, with a dash of unwashed armpit.

 

I opened up the better of the two and my wife left the room,the cat shortly afterwards. Any way , I cannot find a supply in the UK. If anyone else knows of a source please let me know.

 

Dave

You might try a farm supply store as I read that it is used to keep animal stalls from smelling badly. Or maybe a veterinary.

 

Don

 

my logic ran in parallel with your own, but non of the vet suppliers on line sold it, and most of the pet care emporia want to sell wet spray stuffs, but still looking.

 

Dave

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