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Bill H - Posted - 10/07/2011: 16:27:50
I just picked up an orphan K style Vega pot to put a five string neck on. The skin head it came with seems in good condition but is really dirty and stained. Any one have any tricks or tips for cleaning up a skin head?
Thanks, Bill
tdennis - Posted - 10/07/2011: 16:39:39
Whatever you use, make sure it is very mild. I've had success w/ very diluted dishwashing soap. It's very important that you work quickly , & then thoroughly & repeatedly rinse it clean. Try to use as little water as possible. ( you don't want it very soapy, or very soaked). Try to avoid getting water down into the crown. Cleaning an old head can be very risky. Any area that is heavily worn , or effected by bacteria/stains, will absorb a lot more moisture, & can break, especially if it is directly on the edge of the crown. Good luck. I have sometimes regretted trying to clean an old head , & have thought of the phrase, "let sleeping dogs lie".
Edited by - tdennis on 10/07/2011 16:52:57
J-Walk - Posted - 10/07/2011: 17:12:31
Skin heads are supposed to be dirty and stained.
Bill H - Posted - 10/07/2011: 17:41:52
True, but my own dirt is one thing, and unknown stains are kinda creepy.
Tinfoot - Posted - 10/07/2011: 19:06:55
Heh, but it may be FAMOUS stains! .. Did Paris Hilton ever play the banjo?
rcmoore - Posted - 10/07/2011: 19:47:37
I have had some luck with pink pearl erasers. It is tedious work; but it will generally remove the worst of the grunge. If the head is pretty thick and seems to be resilent, I have also used fine grit sandpaper. I use the finest garnet paper I can find. I had some issues with the wet or dry sandpaper. It had a tendency to leave some dark streaks. But I was able to remove them with the pink pearl. As tdennis said; be very careful around the crown (edges), there is very little give there because of the rim or tone ring. I doubt you will ever get one to look good; but with diligence you should be able to make it look ok. By the way you need to do this with the head installed.
Bob Moore
banjobart - Posted - 10/07/2011: 20:30:25
Try hand wipes like the Wet Ones or Clorox products, they come in a white #2 HDPE plastic container and are pre-moistened / dry off with a paper towel when you are done scrubbing.
(Fine sandpaper scrubbed lightly works very well on frosted plastic heads.)
Ho C Ying - Posted - 10/08/2011: 02:58:59
I have a 1880s A.C. Fairbanks & Cole. It seems the skin head is original. My friends told me,”do not clean the skin head”. I just used a wet paper towel to wipe off the dust on the surface of the old skin head.
Edited by - Ho C Ying on 10/08/2011 03:00:37
jbalch - Posted - 10/08/2011: 05:07:55
Have you considered replacing it? Bleached white goat hides from Bill Miller are only $15. Mounting one is not difficult. Then you can work on adding your own new stains....
banjoseen.us/Store/index.html
rexhunt - Posted - 10/08/2011: 05:29:48
I've always heard about the eraser method. Get a good art eraser though, not just the end of a pencil.
Rex
carlb - Posted - 10/08/2011: 06:04:57
quote:
Originally posted by rexhunt
I've always heard about the eraser method. Get a good art eraser though, not just the end of a pencil.
Rex
I'm with Rex on this one. Once got a antique present from a friend; it was like an artist eraser but on it was printed "Banjo Head Cleaner".
carlb - Posted - 10/08/2011: 06:26:26
quote:
Originally posted by jbalch
banjoseen.us/Store/index.html
The web site is there, but when I emailed them a question, the email bounced back as:
Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.
<info@banjoseen.com>:
MountainBanjo - Posted - 10/08/2011: 07:53:20
Just spread some peanut butter on it and let the dog do the rest.
Ho C Ying - Posted - 10/08/2011: 08:16:31
quote:
Originally posted by MountainBanjo
Just spread some peanut butter on it and let the dog do the rest.
Made me laugh! 
BTuno - Posted - 10/08/2011: 08:26:11
I've used saddle soap with some success. It is made to clean leather and removes all but the worst stains. It buffs to a hard finish that also helps preserve the skin.. use lightly. Cleaning with regular soap and water is dicey, especially if you soak one section of the head more than the other it will pucker or sag when it dries.
The Old Timer - Posted - 10/08/2011: 10:26:32
Well, I managed to clean an old JB Rogers 3 Star head of dark pick marks, sweat stains and even a little coffee. I removed the head to do this. I used everything mentioned above; the pink eraser, a VERY light amount of saddle soap/leather cleaner on a damp rag, a light spray of formula 409 cleanser, and then over and over and over again, MANY MANY times. I used rainwater to rinse/blot clean occasionally. It did a nice job BUT this long process caused the head to shrink so badly (and harden up) that it couldn't be put back on the banjo it came from! I guess it's the repeated wetting and drying, with no tension on it, that causes this.
I actually tried to remount it on the banjo (an old Mastertone arch top) but it had so little crown left in it that it split pretty quickly, LONG before the tension hoop had pulled down enough to string it up.
I'm suggesting that as you grimly pursue making an old hide head look clean, you may actually make it unusable. So, just perhaps use the pink eraser with no rewetting of any kind, and make the best of it. Stains that have "soaked" in, as opposed to surface dirt, you just have to accept, I guess.
rcmoore - Posted - 10/08/2011: 12:35:27
I'm with The Old Timer. Early on when I began trying to resurrect old banjos, I tried nearly everthing mentioned in these posts to clean old heads. I ruined nearly every one I got wet. I finally decided to live with the results of just the eraser and fine sandpaper. If I found I could not live with it, I replaced it with a fine new skin from Bill Miller. I have tried all but the new colored ones, and they were all great. Really, unless you just want to keep the old skin for aesthetics, the effort of installing a new head is less than the cleaning job in most cases. And you end up with something that in all likelyhood will last for another half century or more.
Bob Moore
MountainBanjo - Posted - 10/08/2011: 14:11:57
unknown stains are kinda creepy.
------
I'll bet you don't even HAVE a dog. ;-)
Bill H - Posted - 10/08/2011: 14:29:58
You bet I have a dog. Thanks for all the advice. I think I'll be following John's advice about the Miller head. When I took the head off earlier today and held it up to the window to see it better in the light, I saw light shining through in several places at the edges where the head contacted the tone ring. I had a Bay State banjo set up with a skin head some years ago--in the right weather it had a wonderful tone.
jbalch - Posted - 10/08/2011: 17:08:27
How about the dirty old hide on the Dobson. I played it that way as long as I owned it...talk about "patina." Boy if those stains could talk... 
John Gribble - Posted - 10/08/2011: 19:07:13
quote:
Originally posted by jbalch
How about the dirty old hide on the Dobson. I played it that way as long as I owned it...talk about "patina." Boy if those stains could talk...
Well, if those stains could talk, I'm not sure I'd want to hear what they had to say! 
Some of them look like coffee drool. Or blood. Blah!
Actually, I'm in favor of dirty heads, as long as it's my own dirt. I lent my banjo to a lady friend many years ago. She returned it with the Weatherking head all cleaned up. It had had a pretty nice crust to it before she got busy. Looking back, I see that's where the relationship began to cool. But I can see her point.
Here's another vote for Bill Miller's heads. My Wildwood sounds wonderful with its velum finish head.
MountainBanjo - Posted - 10/08/2011: 20:30:03
Thats about what my Supertone Dixie Wonder looks like, only yours is missing the algae.
