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How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: skimthegrotto
Date: 2023-02-05 03:32

I'm new to clarinets and recently purchased a used wooden clarinet from a 2nd hand store. I live in a covid hot spot so I'd like to disinfect the outside of the instrument. I could not find any info on how to safely disinfect the wooden barrel part, only the metal hardware and the mouth piece. A youtube video suggested coconut oil having disinfectant properties and being safe on the wood. Any suggestions?

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Re: How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: Chris P
Date: 2023-02-05 04:42

You can use alcohol to wipe it all down, then oil and buff the wood to restore the finish. Do be aware that alcohol and solvents will strip the polished finish on wooden instrument bodies as they remove oil or wax finishes.

On Buffets with a stained or dyed finish (which is a deep purple coloured alcohol based dye), they will remove that dye as well which isn't always a bad thing.

Whatever you do, proceed with caution if you want to retain a highly polished finish if it had that to begin with. You can restore it by hand ragging or machine polishing with carnauba wax.

Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.

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Re: How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-02-05 06:29

I seem to be the resident in field repair tech of some of the groups I play with.

I've learned to carry supplies in case stuff happens, and over the years people have leveraged this.

Even before Covid I carried a spray bottle of Sterisol.

https://store.weinermusic.com/products/sterisol-for-wind-instrument-8-oz-germiside-concentrate

You just never know when to fix somebody's instrument you have to first play it yourself.

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Re: How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: johngreiner
Date: 2023-02-05 06:53

Not speaking for "disinfecting" per say but to *clean*, I mix 1/4 cup of Murphy Wood Cleaner (previously known as Murphy Oil Soap) per 1 gallon of distilled water. Obviously you won't need a gallon of this stuff so reduce and/or calculate accordingly to how much you want to mix.

It works very well for cleaning old crud out of the tone holes and around key posts, etc. Heck, the entire body for that matter. Maybe I should also say that I highly recommend you do this with the keys removed. This probably is above your pay grade so I'd suggest taking it to a repair tech, asking them what they'd use and if they look at you like a deer looks into headlights, I'd recommend telling them about the above potion.

I'd also recommend doing this to the bore and of course afterwards, oiling the bore and outer body with quality bore oil. Quality butcher block oil also works very well btw.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

John

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Re: How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: Hurstfarm
Date: 2023-02-05 11:53

If you’re worried specifically about Covid, the research suggests that the virus only remains live on surfaces for a few days - see, for example, https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-long-will-coronavirus-survive-on-surfaces/. So, by far the simplest solution is just to wait, then that issue will go away. General cleaning is of course a good idea anyway on an old instrument, but you don’t need to worry about the virus.

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Re: How to disinfect the outside wooden part of a clarinet?

Author: skimthegrotto
Date: 2023-02-06 03:18

Wow, thank you all so much for the awesome replies!

@Chris P, I did end up using a small portion of a disinfectant wipe to gently clean the outside. The instrument is quite worn, previous owners name carved into the bell heh, wasn't too worried about the polish.

@Secondtry, Thank you for the recommendation on Sterisol, will look into that! I have bad lungs so keeping the instrument clean is a high priority for me.

@Johngreiner, I believe i herd another clarinet player mention Murphy's, thank you for the recommendation! I've been researching how to remove the hardware for a complete clean. I appreciate the word of caution.

@Hurstfarm, I probably should have waited, but after wiping down the outside and cleaning the joints and inside barrel I had to play it! (had a new mouthpiece i bought from Guitar Center of all places)

Took me about 30 minutes to get a sound out of the mouth piece, and i was able to get 5 notes, every other note i tried was a squawker. Had a blast.

thank you all!

Post Edited (2023-02-06 03:39)

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