Yes, thats the question and certainly something to think about with COVID-19. I’ve got a Carbony so my flute can take a bit more stress but what about delrin and wood? What will happen to any finish on a flute after disinfecting? A lot of disinfectants are quite abrasive, heat kills delrin, and I wouldn’t want to soak wood.
I’d say use alcohol, denatured alcohol from the hardware store. It flashes off quickly and Wood does not absorb to the way it does water. It might hurt an oil finish, but it won’t do any harm to delrin or to carbon fiber. Alternatively soap and water! Just dry it right after.
One of those uv disinfecting lights would work
i might attempt to say those santi wipes /alchohol wipes , swab it then swab it again with clean dry cloth ,or mild soap and water (best bet) also i would think, let it dry and sit for a few days and then oil it up my 2cents anyway , just for your information my wife is a RN, and the new studies have shown ordinary household 70 % isopropyl alcohol does not kill the virus, hospital strength alcohol kills it , , this virus has been proven to be passed on sexually too as does the HIV virus so that being said its a strong strain, still alive for 7 days or so, so cleaning it and letting it sit would be the best bet, washing your hands just gets it off your hands ,so maybe consider just getting off your flute, mindset , rather then trying to kill it ,
The virus can’t survive out of a host for very long, so the safest thing if buying a flute is just to let it sit un-played and dry for 5 days to a week (depending on how paranoid you are) before playing it. That may run counter to trial periods from some vendors, but it should be a safe practice.
Here’s what the Irish Flute Store is doing, from their Covid-19 info page:
“For your protection, we disinfect all metal and plastic instruments with a 70% propanol alcohol solution which is proven to attack and destroy the envelop protein of viruses including COVID-19.
Alcohol is not used on wooden instruments as it strips away essential oils. As such, wooden instruments are held for 72 hours before shipping (if they have just recently been played). This, along with the additional transit time makes it highly unlikely that any potential virus will have survived.”
I did some reading on this last night and found the opposite–the concentrations much higher than 70% don’t work any better and may not work as well
The CDC says “Ethyl alcohol, at concentrations of 60%–80%, is a potent virucidal agent inactivating all of the lipophilic viruses (e.g., herpes, vaccinia, and influenza virus) and many hydrophilic viruses (e.g., adenovirus, enterovirus, rhinovirus, and rotaviruses but not hepatitis A virus (HAV) 58 or poliovirus) 49. Isopropyl alcohol is not active against the nonlipid enteroviruses but is fully active against the lipid viruses 72. Studies also have demonstrated the ability of ethyl and isopropyl alcohol to inactivate the hepatitis B virus(HBV) 224, 225 and the herpes virus, 490 and ethyl alcohol to inactivate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 227, rotavirus, echovirus, and astrovirus 491)”
Covid19 is a lipid virus
well you stated “Isopropyl alcohol is not active against the nonlipid enteroviruses but is fully active against the lipid viruses”
and that Covid was a Lipid virus" so how is that the opposite of what i said
the hospitals use industrial strength alchohol,whatever industrial strength is, it probably has other ingredients, (alcohol ethanol) the "high grade alchohol " what ever that is still needs water as a carrier , because water has "staying time: , which is needed, pure alcohol evaporates too fast, they also use high grade sanitizers they spray on tables benches and so forth , also i work on the Docks and they are using high grade sanitizers to spray all the cabs and vehicles before use
, I guess the proven killer is still bleach, clorox, (sodium hypochlorite ) but it needs to be left on for a few minutes -----bottom line —the sun and time , keep washing your hands before you pick your nose , use 70 percent hand sanitiser, some bleach ,open windows to let in the fresh air.
we will see
This recent thread may be of interest: https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/coronavirus-and-flutes/102061/1
its very rare and hard to find, i am lucky because i live by the Sea,
it has been known throughout small circles of the world of fisherman, sailors and dock workers, that Albacore sweat cures most virus’s, the skill is how to get it, its a very hard process of catching the fish laying it on the deck and stressing it out enough that it sweats, one can probably imagine the rarity of this precious oil , the shelf life is only a couple of days
The Albacore Sweat is fine, but first it has to be catalized with Unobtainium.
Bob
this is why it does not last long it catalyzes when the liquid/oil evaporates, the unobtainium jars to keep this from happening , where would one even find them, we would use glazed stoneware with a wax sealed lid , but it has to stay cold or the wax melts----
Essence of Cocus Wood?
Shrew’s tears.