Today was my last day of summer vacation. I am pretty depressed about this, although I should go start earning money again - I don't get a paid vacation after all!

I worked in brief bits of time today, since I had a fair pile of errands to run.

I set the neck in the car for about an hour today. The relief in the neck has decreased, and it is getting straighter. There is still about 1/40" relief in the middle, though, so I might flatten it a bit more.

I took the shoes off with a pair of open-end wrenches. They came off pretty easily.

I started cleaning with Quick Glo. You can probably tell which side I have already done.

Okay, DON'T DO THIS, but I spilled a bit of Quick Glo on the wood in the hoop. I wiped it off quickly, and noticed that the finish was really clean where I wiped it. I did a test in a discrete location (where the dowel stick covers the inside of the hoop) and found that Quick Glo did NOT hurt the finish, but did a great job cleaning off the incredibly difficult gunk on the finish. DON'T do this - you might have a different finish, or a different batch of Quick Glo, or who knows what. But I did it, and it worked beautifully.

The tailpiece and stretcher are looking a lot better too.

More cleaning of the neck. I used a pipe cleaner to get in those though spots with some naptha. I also spent about ten minutes cleaning the fretboard with naptha, and another 20 cleaning the rest of the neck with naptha.

Much better. Wow.

But - oh man, that is a lot of hardware to clean. No way will I be scrubbing every single hook, shoe, and bolt.

I discovered that the ebony fretboard is thinner in the middle of the neck than on the ends. I also found that several frets are not set very well - I'll get those the next time I make a pot of hide glue.
My apologies for the penguin bedspread. I work outside under a shade on a metal table, and I try to keep things clean.

Not a really accomplished day today, though I did get a few minutes in the garage.

I was puzzled by the 5th string nut. I knew it was ebony, but wasn't sure how it was kept in place. I wedged my fingernails underneath, and it popped right out! No glue or anything, just a good friction fit. How a piece like this stays in place for 120 years is beyond me. And it is tiny, so I will be VERY careful not to lose it.

While out today, I found this polish at a bicycle shop. It's pretty benign, non-toxic stuff.

And it seems to work a treat. I have a bunch of old t-shirts and socks in the garage, and just cut off three inch squares to use for whatever task I might have.  (I can't bring myself to use old underwear, no matter how many times I've washed it.) I'll pull the shoes off tomorrow and polish the whole pot. I also need to deal with the small hardware somehow.

The neck has a forward bow to it, thanks to the stupid steel strings that were there. My plan is to clamp it to this 2x2 oak piece, wedging a couple of guitar picks under the first and last frets to make a slight back bow. I'll then gently warm it up by placing it in my car on a 90 degree day. I expect it will spring back slightly, and should be almost straight when done. The neck is pretty rigid, so it will take a bit of pressure. 

I've got an ad up at the banjo hangout looking for the one missing hook, and should be able to get a skin and some tuners really soon.

Banjo disassembly and test cleaning

I had a free half-hour this evening, so I took the Stewart banjo apart and did some test cleaning. Warning - the pictures are graphic representations of filth - this thing was beyond disgusting.

Ready for dis-assembly.

Hmm - the nut is wedge-shaped, and slides in from the bass side. I really don't think this can be original, but I'll hold judgement.

The hole for the dowel-stick. Filthy.

That joint isn't as tidy as I thought it was. There was also an enormous dust bunny in there.

The angle of the peghead is extra steep. I like the fact that the carving is in a 90 degree angle from the neck itself.

Dowel stick hold from the outside. So nice and shiny.

The neck is off, the hooks are off, and the tension ring is off. The skin is ready to pop off.

The skin is off, and there is the writing. There is still a metal hoop inside the edges of the skin, which I will remove next.

Throwing the skin in a bucket of water.

While the skin soaks, I can show you the nice shiny area under the skin, and the filth everywhere else.

Here's a cool detail - the underside of the dowel stick has the number 229 stamped on it, and the number 229 is etched under the dowel stick hole. These pieces DO actually go together!

I tried a quick scrub, and it looks like a lot of this gunk will come off.

The skin is done soaking, and just falls off of the flesh hoop.

A lot of the finger gunk came off the skin as well. I can't put this back on this banjo, but it's a good quality skin, and will work well for a smaller banjo in the future.

All the hardware is packed up.

Here's a dumb idea - soaking the tension hoop in Simple Green. Not effective, and may have caused tarnish.

After some cleaning, things are looking much better.

Much better.

I then cleaned the fretboard and neck with naphtha. I used steel wool with the grain on the fretboard, and a rag on the rest of the neck. I didn't finish the job, but a lot of dirt came off.

Looking MUCH better.

Still needs more cleaning, but the bulk of the grime is gone.

This is looking good. The finish on the back of the neck is a bit shot, and there are several frets that are loose and need to be set back in place, but overall, things are looking good!