Listerine is under 60 proof (30%) alcohol. It does have some other antiseptic ingredients if memory serves, but for just killing germs, you're better off with something a little more potent.
sterlize/disinfect blades?
- Thread starter annr
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Listerine is under 60 proof (30%) alcohol. It does have some other antiseptic ingredients if memory serves, but for just killing germs, you're better off with something a little more potent.
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I clean all my knives with rubbing alcohol. Never had any problem with oxidation or anything.
I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Quaternary Ammonium. Available as tablets from any restaurant supplier. At the concentration used, it's odorless, colorless (some commercial products have a color added, so you can tell the water is treated) and requires no rinse. Make a basin of the stuff up, soak your tools in it, and you're set. It won't hurt anything that's safe to get water on.
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I haven't dismissed your suggestion. I started looking at this product yesterday and need to study it further. I have basic questions of a prgmatic nature:
Fx. I'm unclear how I would be set after the initial soak, b/c after the first time I use the tools presumably I would need to repeat the process before helping the next student. If that's the case I'm not set-up to do soaking at work or to deal with spills. Ultimately anything I use carries the potential to wind up in the absorbent wood bore or interior of a reed b/c key pieces of metal are inserted into the reed. I remain unclear what the true risk/benefit ratio is in the entire scenario and what minimum of protocol results in optimal risk reduction. I am not without the power to refuse to work on a reed, to tell someone to wash their hands, or go home, or to carry duplicate/triplicate tools to wash and dry at home. I do plan to present these ideas to the student to see what seems reasonable from that perspective.
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I found several grain alcohol brands and can't figure out where the calories are coming from.
Alcohol 95
http://www.drinksmixer.com/desc2416.html
Everclear
http://www.drinksmixer.com/desc494.html
Anyone can help me out? Is alcohol a separate category as listed on Everclear?
Bill DeShivs
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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Alcohol has calories. In the amount you would be using, I don't think any will be ingested.
Bill
Bill
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Thanks Bill,
I knew that alcoholic drink would have calories, but I don't see where they are coming from on this disclosure I linked. According to those links the calories don't come from anywhere, e.g. carbs, fat, protein. One of the links separates alcohol as it's own category on par with carbs, fat, protein. Is that what they mean by hidden calories.
Who knows, I may resort to sampling if the reeds don't pan out.
Pure grain alcohol (95%) is not legal for sale in all states. I know of a laboratory that used to use it to clean some things in the field prior to collecting samples. They had to go into the next state to buy it. Probably should keep it locked in the truck while transporting and make sure there are no issues about bringing it into these locations where these students are located. Probably easiest to just buy/try the alcohol wipes and see how that works.
As said above, I bet a quick wipe down with isopropyl alchohol is a quick and easy way to get decent disinfection. Plus, it evaporates so quickly that you can get back to what you are doing. I would take a paper towel and a little alchohol and give the blade a quick wipe. Unlike some other disinfectants, it wont taste funny (since it evaporates so quickly) and isnt dangerous to put in someones mouth like a bleach solution is (same reason, evaprotes quickly). My two cents
Alcohol is metabolized sugar. Sugar has calories. Ergo...
I really don't understand if you are just reusing a knife on multiple reeds, or reusing reeds for multiple students.
It's common practice for any reed student above rank beginner to either buy or make their own reeds. It's a skill as necessary as being able to assemble the instrument. What happens when on tuesday night the student's one and only reed breaks....they have to wait until monday night for you to make them a new one?
All your students above the age of 6 should either buy new reeds (they are not that prohibitively expensive!) or learn to make their own.
As for you helping them touch them up, first of all stainless steel is mildly anti-microbial, and second of all you could simply use X-acto knives like all the professional oboists and bassoonists of the world do.
If you want something much less disposable, go to a woodcrafters store or other woodworking place and purchase one of the literally hundreds of carving knives they have, in price ranges from 50 cents to 100 dollars.
Every oboist I have ever known carries their carving gear with them (lets face it, it's a few pieces of rough cut bamboo, some string and wire, a couple of knives and a little sack) so that they can cut reeds during tacits. Your students should do the same, and if germs are a concern, you can use their knife.
I just don't understand why you have to spend so much time sharpening your knife, and both you and your students slobber on the reeds so much. When in doubt, just bring a few paper towels and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Total cost 79 cents at Target.
Now let me tell you a little story. Maybe even two.
I'm a sculptor, and I work mostly with clay. Clay needs to be malleable to be sculpted or thrown. Freshly mixed clay (dry mix and water) is of course malleable, but it has little to no strength or gumminess. If you are, let's say throwing a porcelain pot the freshly mixed porcelain will not bend and flow like a living material, but rather be a lump of dirt that you have to fight with. It also won't have strength to be thrown tall and thin.
The best way to solve this problem is to age it. Some potters age it for a decade, some for only a few months. When you open the bag, it doesn't have that clean earthy clay smell anymore, it smells like rotten garbage. Fungus, bacteria and who knows what has taken up root in the clay and provided literally a living matrix to add strength and malleability. Those germs are of course burned out in firing.
In college my buddy and I clearly didn't have time to age clay for 5 years. What we did was throw a bunch of clay in a garbage can, and leave the lid partly open so it wouldn't dry out. Leaves, bugs, grass and dust got in their and the clay aged very well. One time a squirrel died in the bucket and decomposed. That particular can of clay was the best we ever used. We made a squirrel stamp to stamp all objects we made out of that clay.
When you work with clay as a potter or a sculptor, your hands are constantly being abraded and even cut either by the tools you use, simple wear and tear, or from the little crystals in the clay. Not once did my friend or I suffer even the smallest of consequences from using the dead squirrel clay. If you inquire with any potter, you will hear similar stories. Some of the best low-temperature clays for things like terracotta come from riverbanks covered in bird excrement, fish carcasses and a large number of microbial pathogens.
In a related anecdote, regardless of how many times you sterilize the pots and pans in a restaurant kitchen, your chef will never sterilize his hands. Or his knives. He will use those hands and knives on raw chicken, fish and vegetables. He will wash his hands compulsively throughout the day, to the point that his hands are a cracked red dried out mess. He will however wipe his hands on his apron, run them through his hair and occasionally, let's face it, scratch his ass. You will not get sick from this food. You will get sick if he doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom, or if the food itself is contaminated. You will not get sick as a result of him not bathing his 10" french knife in bleach for an hour.
The best restaurant food has usually also had the most hands touching it on the way to your plate. Some of them are dirty.
I'm not saying for you to go slurp water from the toilet. I am however saying be reasonable. Furthermore, get your students to make their own damn reeds.
I really don't understand if you are just reusing a knife on multiple reeds, or reusing reeds for multiple students.
It's common practice for any reed student above rank beginner to either buy or make their own reeds. It's a skill as necessary as being able to assemble the instrument. What happens when on tuesday night the student's one and only reed breaks....they have to wait until monday night for you to make them a new one?
All your students above the age of 6 should either buy new reeds (they are not that prohibitively expensive!) or learn to make their own.
As for you helping them touch them up, first of all stainless steel is mildly anti-microbial, and second of all you could simply use X-acto knives like all the professional oboists and bassoonists of the world do.
If you want something much less disposable, go to a woodcrafters store or other woodworking place and purchase one of the literally hundreds of carving knives they have, in price ranges from 50 cents to 100 dollars.
Every oboist I have ever known carries their carving gear with them (lets face it, it's a few pieces of rough cut bamboo, some string and wire, a couple of knives and a little sack) so that they can cut reeds during tacits. Your students should do the same, and if germs are a concern, you can use their knife.
I just don't understand why you have to spend so much time sharpening your knife, and both you and your students slobber on the reeds so much. When in doubt, just bring a few paper towels and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. Total cost 79 cents at Target.
Now let me tell you a little story. Maybe even two.
I'm a sculptor, and I work mostly with clay. Clay needs to be malleable to be sculpted or thrown. Freshly mixed clay (dry mix and water) is of course malleable, but it has little to no strength or gumminess. If you are, let's say throwing a porcelain pot the freshly mixed porcelain will not bend and flow like a living material, but rather be a lump of dirt that you have to fight with. It also won't have strength to be thrown tall and thin.
The best way to solve this problem is to age it. Some potters age it for a decade, some for only a few months. When you open the bag, it doesn't have that clean earthy clay smell anymore, it smells like rotten garbage. Fungus, bacteria and who knows what has taken up root in the clay and provided literally a living matrix to add strength and malleability. Those germs are of course burned out in firing.
In college my buddy and I clearly didn't have time to age clay for 5 years. What we did was throw a bunch of clay in a garbage can, and leave the lid partly open so it wouldn't dry out. Leaves, bugs, grass and dust got in their and the clay aged very well. One time a squirrel died in the bucket and decomposed. That particular can of clay was the best we ever used. We made a squirrel stamp to stamp all objects we made out of that clay.
When you work with clay as a potter or a sculptor, your hands are constantly being abraded and even cut either by the tools you use, simple wear and tear, or from the little crystals in the clay. Not once did my friend or I suffer even the smallest of consequences from using the dead squirrel clay. If you inquire with any potter, you will hear similar stories. Some of the best low-temperature clays for things like terracotta come from riverbanks covered in bird excrement, fish carcasses and a large number of microbial pathogens.
In a related anecdote, regardless of how many times you sterilize the pots and pans in a restaurant kitchen, your chef will never sterilize his hands. Or his knives. He will use those hands and knives on raw chicken, fish and vegetables. He will wash his hands compulsively throughout the day, to the point that his hands are a cracked red dried out mess. He will however wipe his hands on his apron, run them through his hair and occasionally, let's face it, scratch his ass. You will not get sick from this food. You will get sick if he doesn't wash his hands after going to the bathroom, or if the food itself is contaminated. You will not get sick as a result of him not bathing his 10" french knife in bleach for an hour.
The best restaurant food has usually also had the most hands touching it on the way to your plate. Some of them are dirty.
I'm not saying for you to go slurp water from the toilet. I am however saying be reasonable. Furthermore, get your students to make their own damn reeds.