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[Martyn]

I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before.

Does anyone know what I can use to clean the buttons of old pre-war Hohner clubs, Liliputs etc. when they have become stained and not just dirty, without doing any damage?

Martyn 

[Lester]

About five threads down from your post you could find

Clean Buttons

[Martyn]

Thanks Lester, I noticed that thread.
I was more refering to the staining that seems to affect the old Hohner buttons. It must be due to the type of material they are made from, which seems to absorb acid from the fingers and turns them a sort of yellowy brown colour.

Martyn

[Falseknight]

Doesn't that add character?

[Québécois]

Some plastics naturally turn yellow over time, one example is those white plastic domes found on old photographic lightmeters, or even the plastic lenses in the front of car headlamps. Oxydation, UV rays etc may cause changes in color.

Polishing the buttons with very fine abrasives may remove a thin layer of plastic and get rid of some of the yellow, but this would be a lengthy process!

Not much we can do!  As Falseknight points out, the yellow buttons add character to your box!

[Martyn]

Doesn't that add character?

Hmm yes, I think you are probably right and it'll certainly save a lot of hard work!

Martyn

[Theo]

It must be due to the type of material they are made from,

They are made from a casein (milk protein) based plastic similar to Erinoid a wonder material of its time. 

If you want to make some new buttons here are instructions

[rees]

There is a ceilidh band in Oxford called "Knit your own Yoghurt"

I always thought it was a joke until I read the article on plastic milk. 

[tom f]

Your old Hohner buttons can be brought back almost to their original condition but it does take a bit of effort.  I've just finished refurbishing the buttons on a Club 1 and during the process I've tried most of the solvents and polishes.  Most of the buttons were badly stained with their colour their ranging from light brown to almost black and in many cases the surfaces were badly crazed.  As mentioned elswhere you need to use some form of abrasive to cut back the damaged surface and you need to keep the abrasive as light as possible to cut down on the polishing effort later.  I've used 1200 grit wet and dry or paint colour restorer (like T Cut) with some success.  More recently I've found scotchbrite pads very effective.  Once you are back to the base material you need to polish the surface to get rid of the abrasion marks and paint colour restorer seems to work well for this (it also produces excellent results on the plastic treble keyboard).  You need to be able to get good access to the buttons for this process and trying to do them in situ would be almost impossible.  As I was dismantling the mechanism anyway I was able to deal with each button in turn and in fact you may find it easiest of all if you prise the buttons off the levers (quite easy to do with a knife although the base end will need the levers removed first to get access to the bottom of the buttons).  This also allows you to turn the buttons 180 degrees when you put them back, to even up the wear.  To get a decent finish takes time to achieve and I would estimate at least one hour of vigorous polishing will be required for each button.  The reward is seeing you face in a mirror like finish on the surface off each item and this also helps to take your mind off your sore and bleeding fingers.  Good luck!

[Martyn]

Your old Hohner buttons can be brought back almost to their original condition but it does take a bit of effort.  I've just finished refurbishing the buttons on a Club 1 and during the process I've tried most of the solvents and polishes.  Most of the buttons were badly stained with their colour their ranging from light brown to almost black and in many cases the surfaces were badly crazed.  As mentioned elswhere you need to use some form of abrasive to cut back the damaged surface and you need to keep the abrasive as light as possible to cut down on the polishing effort later.  I've used 1200 grit wet and dry or paint colour restorer (like T Cut) with some success.  More recently I've found scotchbrite pads very effective.  Once you are back to the base material you need to polish the surface to get rid of the abrasion marks and paint colour restorer seems to work well for this (it also produces excellent results on the plastic treble keyboard).  You need to be able to get good access to the buttons for this process and trying to do them in situ would be almost impossible.  As I was dismantling the mechanism anyway I was able to deal with each button in turn and in fact you may find it easiest of all if you prise the buttons off the levers (quite easy to do with a knife although the base end will need the levers removed first to get access to the bottom of the buttons).  This also allows you to turn the buttons 180 degrees when you put them back, to even up the wear.  To get a decent finish takes time to achieve and I would estimate at least one hour of vigorous polishing will be required for each button.  The reward is seeing you face in a mirror like finish on the surface off each item and this also helps to take your mind off your sore and bleeding fingers.  Good luck!

Many thanks for your help.
It certainly sounds like a lot of hard work. 

[waltzman]

Your old Hohner buttons can be brought back almost to their original condition but it does take a bit of effort.  I've just finished refurbishing the buttons on a Club 1 and during the process I've tried most of the solvents and polishes.  Most of the buttons were badly stained with their colour their ranging from light brown to almost black and in many cases the surfaces were badly crazed.  As mentioned elswhere you need to use some form of abrasive to cut back the damaged surface and you need to keep the abrasive as light as possible to cut down on the polishing effort later.  I've used 1200 grit wet and dry or paint colour restorer (like T Cut) with some success.  More recently I've found scotchbrite pads very effective.  Once you are back to the base material you need to polish the surface to get rid of the abrasion marks and paint colour restorer seems to work well for this (it also produces excellent results on the plastic treble keyboard).  You need to be able to get good access to the buttons for this process and trying to do them in situ would be almost impossible.  As I was dismantling the mechanism anyway I was able to deal with each button in turn and in fact you may find it easiest of all if you prise the buttons off the levers (quite easy to do with a knife although the base end will need the levers removed first to get access to the bottom of the buttons).  This also allows you to turn the buttons 180 degrees when you put them back, to even up the wear.  To get a decent finish takes time to achieve and I would estimate at least one hour of vigorous polishing will be required for each button.  The reward is seeing you face in a mirror like finish on the surface off each item and this also helps to take your mind off your sore and bleeding fingers.  Good luck!

Many thanks for your help.
It certainly sounds like a lot of hard work. 

My standards for a 'decent finish' must be different.  I spent about one minute on each button of an old Hohner club using a mild abrasive cleanser (Bon Ami) and got 98% of the grime off.  They look pretty good to me.