The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello. I have several etched-label Edison Diamond Disc records with various amounts of mold/mildew spotting. Anyone have a recommendation as to how to clean them?

Thanks!

The usual method is alcohol on cotton balls, staying away from the edges, center hole, and any paper labels. Air dry. Do not use water; the wood flour core will swell if it gets wet.

For particularly dirty records, I will use a barely damp paper towel to try to remove what I can first before using the alcohol and cotton balls.

Let me add some detail to that method. If you happen to have a kitchen countertop of granite (or very evenly laid tiles) like we do, just lay a paper towel on it, then place the disc on the towel.

Have a good supply of cotton balls handy, and make sure you use the highest percentage rubbing alcohol available (the lower the percentage, the more water is in it, and water is the enemy!).

Then use one hand to hold the disc in place at the edge, and run the alcohol-soaked cotton ball in circles around the label with your other hand, in line with the grooves. The paper towel helps it from sliding around as you rub. Press firmly.

The ball will get dirty. Keep doing it, changing the cotton as it gets dirty, til the cotton stops getting dirty. Avoid the label, of course.

Flip the record over onto a new paper towel, and clean the other side.

The beauty of the stone or ceramic countertop is that if you spill it does no harm, while the flatness prevents damage to the record surface.

P.S. The extreme danger of water exposure to diamond discs might lead us to something significant about Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Could it be that she was thus thereby limited in her personal listening, by her own water-averse composition, to only Edison discs? Maybe this was one of the reasons she was so ornery. Too much Dalhart and Romain and Murray and not enough jazz. “What a world, what a worrrld…”

What Peter said. The only thing I do differently is that I use a dish towel under the record instead of a paper towel. Gives a little more padding and a little more grip.

Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol, and as mentioned before, contains water and is best not used for cleaning diamond discs, nor for mixing/diluting shellac.

You are far better off using methanol alcohol, which isn't manufactured with water content.
Not sure what you guys call it in USA, but here it's called metholated spirits.

gramophoneshane wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:53 pm Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol, and as mentioned before, contains water and is best not used for cleaning diamond discs, nor for mixing/diluting shellac.

You are far better off using methanol alcohol, which isn't manufactured with water content.
Not sure what you guys call it in USA, but here it's called metholated spirits.

That would be "denatured alcohol" in the US.

- Bill

As long as the Diamond Disc is in good condition (no lamination cracks) and you stay away from the label/spindle hole and edge and don't saturate or soak it, there is no reason not to use water or lower-concentration isopropanol. On some grime, water (plain or with a little surfactant) does a better job. As mentioned, the danger is the record core swelling. If a small amount of water is not in danger of getting to the substrate, it is fine to use with a bit of caution. See this thread.

gramophoneshane wrote: ↑Mon Jan 09, 2023 6:53 pm Rubbing alcohol is isopropyl alcohol

Rubbing alcohol is the one that will be like 30 percent water and 70 percent isopropyl. 99 percent isopropyl alcohol is often found in the same places as rubbing alcohol but labeled differently. I think that methanol is actually less pure than concentrated isopropyl.

Yeah you can get 91% at any drugstore, and sometimes even 99%. Safe enough.