shakeyhands Report post Posted March 8, 2014 Hi I have recently brought back from Zambia an African Drum. The drum was made using traditional methods by a villager using untreated wood for the drum itself (i helped cut down the tree) and rawhide for the drumskin. The wood didn't have time to properly dry before i needed to fly back to Australia, thus it was still green with heaps of moisture. during both the flight home and the Australian customs required 4week quarantine period, a considerable amount of mold has grown on both the wood and the rawhide. The wood is of course not the topic for this forum but rather the rawhide skin. Mold is on both the outside and the inside (this the most difficult to get at by hand). I have cleaned the rawhide mold off the outside surface and attempted to get at the inside surface. i used water and a dishwashing scrubber to clean the rawhide. i have left the drum in the sun for days to attempt to dry it out. My problem and question is how can i better clean the skin and is there a way to prominently stop mold from growing. i thought about pouring a bleach solution into the inside of the drum to kill the mold on the wood. however, i do not know how that will affect the rawhide skin (as well as the wood for that matter). i will upload some pictures so you all can get a better feel for the matter. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sona Report post Posted March 8, 2014 Well that´s pretty awefull to be honest. Got an original Djembé from african handcarvers myself and I know how valueable it is to me. But just to the mold:First of all, I don´t know the wheather at your place, but don´t put the drum directly into the sun! Keep it in a warm and dry place, but it you place it in the sun, it might create strain to the wood because of different temperatures on the outside (sunny side and shadow side). This might result into cracks in the wood because 1. as you said it isn´t properly and completely dried and 2. It isn´t able to dry equally all over.Besides that rather than trying some bleach solution ´d try it with denatured alcohol. Even if you uploaded some pictures I can´t see, whether you might be able to reach the inside with your hand (and arm) or not. If you can reach it, try to rub it off with a cloth dampened with the denat. alc.Otherwise maybe with a long brush or sth. If that doesn´t help I´d dilute the alcohol with some water and "swing it out" (don´t know whether this is the correct english phrase, but I hope so ^^) carefully. Insted of doing this just once with a lot of it, I´d go for it multiple times with less of the solution.Hope that might help Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shakeyhands Report post Posted March 10, 2014 excellent, those suggestions sound great. thanks a lot Sona. i can, just, get my hand and arm inside the drum. The wood surface on the inside is quite ruff and splintered. so its difficult to wipe with a cloth. I'll try your suggestions and post the results. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shakeyhands Report post Posted March 10, 2014 "swing it out" Does this mean to put some solution into the drum and swing the drum around? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sona Report post Posted March 10, 2014 Does this mean to put some solution into the drum and swing the drum around? yeah sth like that. just try it carefully and watch whether/how ot works. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
