Moldy cylinder?

[gramophoneshane]

The other nite I descided to play a few 2 min cylinders, cause I hadn't played them for ages. Got to my pile of sterlings, pulled one out and white mold half way up the cylinder. I wiped it down, which helped a little, but thinking it was a goner, i descided to experiment.
I then used a small amount of car polish, gave it a rub, and it looked like new. Then I thought it would sound like crap because the sound waves would be clogged with polish, but it sounded perfect.
So I found an old edison cylinder with a little brown mold on it and tried again. This time it made no difference to the mold.
Im now wondering if the white on the sterling was mold at all. Does anyone know if different brand cylinders get different fungi's?
Ive now polished 1 edison, 1 bell and 1 white record, to see what happens. They all seem fine, but Im a bit worried about long term chemical reactions that may occur, and so have only done one of each.
Have any of you guys
ever experimented like this with any of your own cylinders? I know its probably a bad thing to do, but Im wondering if this might actually help a good cylinder remain mold free.
What are your thoughts??

[maroongem]

If the mold is fairly recent, you can usually get by with a careful wipe.
It's the long term when it has actually eaten into the metallic soap compound (there is actually animal fat involved in the material) that you're sunk.
Moisture in the air is absorbed into the cotton lining (if so lined) and makes a perfect playground for mold. I have never found mold on the cylinders that came in the boxes that had the hollow cardboard center peg and no lining.

Bill

[steve]

Hi Shane,

I use a shoe brush that is only for my wax cylinder records, you polish in the same direction as the grooves and if the surface is good they will shine up. This works well on dirty records.

Steve