Condition as new, like it should be:
This is how it looks like now:
The front of the comb shall be planed by sanding. And btw I want to round the vertical edges of the ligaments as it is e.g. on the Seydel 1847 or newer Hohners like the Thunderbird.
The woodwork is not difficult. The stainless removal of the upcoming chips and dust is not difficult either. But there is the question of a new sealing of the bare sanded surface. Should I search for a suitable varnish? If yes, which one?
Or is it good enough to treat the surfaces with linseed oil - like it is done on recorders? Coldpressed and unboiled linseed oil is supposed to intrude into the wood deeper than boiled or otherwise industrially treated. And it would be most certainly food-safe and therefore harmless for health. It is in the mouth all the time when playing. And the processing of linseed oil is very simple. And drying and hardening time is ok. And the treatment can be repeated from time to time when necessary.
2nd question:
Btw the nails shall be replaced by screws when everything is dismounted anyway. Only on 1 pair of nail holes there is a distance of some cm. On this only both of the reedplates and the comb must be drilled through vice versa. All the other nail holes are situated very closely together, but not exactly aligned. It seems that they are some tenth or up till nearly 1 mm apart from each other. So the existing holes in the reedplates are not exactly congruent in every case. This is not visible before the instrument is not fully dismounted.
To drill and screw skewdly is forbidden by itself. Is it a good idea to drill a little bit larger to get vertically aligned and congruent holes for the screws, and use greater screws? Or is it better to drill new holes through both of the reedplates and the comb altogether in one go in a sufficient distance to the old ones which do not fit?
