Tag Archives: piano finish

How to Clean Your Piano Finish

Some people look at fingerprints on a piano with a high gloss finish and think they will never be able to keep it clean. Interestingly, in many ways a high gloss finish is easier to care for than a satin finish. How can this be? The difference is simple. A high gloss finish on pianos is generally a polyester finish. It is a totally sealed finish. You can actually clean it with Windex without damaging it believe it or not! Be sure to use a soft cotton cloth. You never want to use anything that has any fibers in it because as robust as high gloss finishes are, certain things can mess them up very quickly.

For example, if you take a music book and toss it on the piano making it spin, you’ll notice little tiny hairline scratches on the finish just from tossing the book on the piano. Polyester finishes were first introduced in this country from Asian Manufacturers at the NAMM music trade show. To demonstrate how robust they are, they set a piano on fire! The downside of high gloss finishes is that if they’re damaged, very few people know how to repair them. However, they are generally very strong finishes unless a metal object hits them. Hairline scratches can be buffed out by a professional furniture person if they’re not too deep.

Satin Finishes

Satin finishes are somewhat porous finishes which are hand-rubbed. They have multi-layers of lacquer, yet they’re still open finishes. You’ll see fingerprints in the finish and may wonder how to polish them out. You do not want to use cleaning products like pledge because they leave a wax residue which can build up over time and must be professionally removed. There are some piano polishes which are specifically designed for satin or high gloss piano finishes which won’t damage the piano. General furniture polishes are not advisable on pianos.

How do you clean a satin finish? It’s really simple: you take a soft cotton cloth and rub it in the direction of the grain of the finish. If there are persistent blemishes from dirty hands or even just the natural oils in your skin, take a slightly damp cloth and rub it in the direction of the grain of the finish. You should be able to get rid of all the fingerprints so long as there is nothing embedded in there or if it got dented by a sharp object.

That’s all you really need to do to keep the finish of your piano in great shape! A black, high gloss finish will show dust. So, you may have to dust the piano more often just to make it look nice. However, overall, the high gloss finish is slightly easier to care for because it is easier to rub out the finish when it is smudged with fingerprints. I hope this has been helpful! Again, this is Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com – Your Online Piano Store! info@LivingPianos.com 949-244-3729

Can You Ruin a Piano Finish by Touching It?

This might sound like a crazy question but it’s surprisingly important and if you own a piano there are a quite a few things you should know about the various types of finishes. Refinishing a piano is an enormous expense and something that can be avoided with proper care and maintenance.

The classic American finish of a piano is a satin hand-rubbed lacquer finish. It’s an extremely popular type of finish but it’s also very important to know how to maintain properly. You might notice that when you place your hands on your piano you may leave fingerprints. If you use light cleaning products you can wipe these off but you’re leaving yourself open to a larger problem down the road. These types of finishes are porous and if you use cleaning products, they will eventually soak into the finish and will have to be professionally removed later on.

So how do you clean a classic satin finish to avoid additional costs later on? The best thing to do is to use a soft cotton cloth rubbing in the direction of the hand-rubbed lines. If you have fingerprints that have gotten deeply ingrained into the finish, then you should use a slightly damp (not wet) cotton cloth and again, rub in the direction of the hand-rubbed lines. This is the best way to clean a finish like this to avoid damage. And it’s all you need to do to maintain the finish in most cases.

The newer type of finish popularized a few decades ago is the high-gloss polyester finish. When these finishes were first introduced, people thought they would be fragile. To demonstrate their stability, companies at trade shows years ago lit them on fire to show their strength! So, can you destroy this type of finish with your hands? While they might show more fingerprints than a satin type of finish, you can’t easily damage this type of finish with your hands because they are plastic! They are sealed so they aren’t porous so the oils in your hands don’t seep in.

That’s not to say that high gloss finishes aren’t without their problems. If you were to take a music book and toss it onto a high gloss lid of a piano when it’s closed, it can cause scratches and lines in the finish that are impossible to remove except by an expert refinisher. So each of these two types of finishes can be damaged in different ways.

Cleaning a high-gloss finish is rather simple. You can actually use a damp cloth or even Windex to clean any fingerprints or dirt off the piano.

There is another way in which you can damage the finish of a piano and that is by simply playing it! Any serious pianist who plays a good deal will eventually scratch their fall boards and a lot of the times it can go all the way down to the grain of the wood. My father Morton Estrin (mortonestrin.com) had a Steinway his father gave him years ago which my sister now owns, and you can see the deep indentations in the fall board exposing the wood as a result of years of practice. You may think that you don’t scratch the fall board of your piano, but if you look closely, you will see at least gentle lines if you play a good deal. The good news is that the fall board is fairly inexpensive to refinish when the time comes. I have had the fall board on my piano refinished a couple of times!

Thanks again for joining me Robert Estrin Robert@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729. If you have any other questions please contact me directly.