The Ultimate Way To Clean Your 78s

Hi all,

After years of experimenting with the "best" way to remove at least 50+ years of crap in the grooves of 78s, I think I have found the best method! The method I am about to describe removes every trace of dirt, dust and similar contaminants from your records and kills any sort of that mildew/mold that you so often find on the early shellac 78s. Plus, it gives 78s of all materials a shiny surface, buffed labels, and enhanced playback; more so than what cleaning with simple soap and water can do.

STEPS:

A.) Clean the record with warm water and mild soap.
B.) Dry the record off with a towel and let stand for 8-12 hours to completely dry.
C.) Play both sides of the record to ensure that there are no skips or tiny particles stuck in the groove that the soap and water did not remove.
D.) Apply a moderate amount of Old English lemon oil all over the record with a soft clean cloth. Now before everyone here has a heart attack at the thought of applying it to your 78s, just read on because you don't actually have to play your lemon oil-soaked record. Apply it in a circular motion, going with the grooves. Think of this step as buffing the record, because you are bringing all the remaining contaminants that soap and water didn't remove to the surface and polishing the record surface too. (Note: I recommend putting a sheet or two of paper towels on both sides of the record to act as an ersatz sleeve, because the lemon oil WILL soak through if you use the original paper sleeve that you used to previously store the record.)
E.) After 24-48 hours have passed, you will notice that almost all of the lemon oil has disappeared off of the record's surface or has been reduced to a very fine coating. At this step, clean the record again with soap and warm water to remove all traces of the lemon oil from the record.
F. ) As with the first time you used soap and water to clean it, dry the record off with a towel and let stand for 8-12 hours to completely dry.
G.) At this step, the cleaning is complete! You now have a record that is as clean as possible, and as we all know, the cleaner a record is the better it will sound, protect against excess wear and the better it will look. You may now put the record back in its paper sleeve or put it on your turntable and prepare to be blown away by the super-great fidelity and rich sound!

I have used this method on dozens of records-even ones worth over $100-and have always gotten great results and the finished product of a record that looks and plays like it was 20-30 years younger! It doesn't remove groove wear, scratches, or label tears but it does get rid of unsightly scuffs and leaves your records as shiny as a mirror. (You can also use this method to clean vinyl, but as vinyl isn't as porous as shellac, you must use only minute amounts of lemon oil; otherwise it will never fully wash out. This method is NOT approved for cylinder records of any material, Diamond Discs, Pathes, or acetates!!)

Hope this helps and be sure to share if this method worked well for you! Take care and happy collecting!

So does the oil evaporate or soak into the shellac, or both?
I can understand how oil would make a record appear all shiny and pretty, but how does oil actually clean a record? I would have thought the soap and water would have already cleaned any dirt and debris from the grooves.

The way that this method works is because only a tiny amount of lemon oil actually gets deep enough to penetrate into the shellac...the rest of it stays on the record surface and loosens up any firm debris on the record washing with soap and water won't IMMEDIATELY rinse off. (Think of it as the lemon oil dissolves EVERYTHING but the shellac itself and the label/label glue.) And all the lemon oil-even the tiny portion that penetrated into the shellac-gets rinsed off at the final step, which is why it's safe to clean your records this way.

Let me give you an example: I recently found a copy of The Weems' String Band "Greenback Dollar" that had been stored in a hot, damp attic for 50 years at minimum. There was dirt, dust, mold, what looked to be a mix of chewing tobacco remnants mixed with animal urine, and some disgusting dried particle all over the surface of the record. It was so filthy I couldn't even play it! Of course, this particular record is extremely rare and valuable so I needed a way to get it clean as possible, and using this method, here's the breakdown of how the contaminants came off.

A. After rinsing with simple soap and water, the worst of the crud-the dirt, dust and tobacco/urine mix all came off the record easily. However, the dried crud and mold did not. So, after I dried the record off I applied a light coating of lemon oil and let it sit for 4 days.

B. After rinsing the record off with soap and water a second time, the dried crud/mold particles came right off, and -lo and behold- after I dried it off, I had a record that was shiny and looked like it had just come off the record presser! It also plays like new, with great fidelity and minimal surface noise. Had I just cleaned it off with soap and water, the record still would have had contaminants on it.

That, my fellow collector friends, is why I claim this method is the ultimate way to clean your records