Dean Randall said about mending rolls:

> I find it advisable to talcum powder the exposed sticky part on the
> back after the repair is made so the roll doesn't try to stick to
> itself when it's wound up.  I don't suggest substituting baby powder
> since it is in part organic and may cause rot and attract vermin.

Baby powder ... that reminds me.  I apologise for posting off-thread,
but --

In the 1950s & 60s Steinway had only one senior piano tuner in Wales,
George Jacques.  In a recent radio broadcast of reminiscences, he
recalled a recital by Vladimir Ashkenazy in Abbey Dore, a restored
medieval abbey upcountry.  Steinway only had one concert grand available
locally, and even this piano had flattened rollers in the action, which
in the damp Abbey atmosphere squeaked atrociously.  Luckily Ashkenazy was
staying locally and came in early to try the piano.  He rejected it as
unusable.

Alas, this was a Saturday with no piano parts stores open, even in
Cardiff, two hours' drive away.  Jacques looked desperately around the
Abbey and there was a genteel lady arranging flowers for the recital.
He had an inspiration:  "Do you have any baby powder at home ?"

She had, and within half an hour he had it ("Vile-smelling it was,
too!"), and an hour later the action had been brought out, talc'd and
restored.  The squeaks had gone.

In the recital, Ashkenazy was playing by the light of a single powerful
standard lamp.  Every time he struck a big chord, said Jacques, "a pink
cloud rose in the light of the lamp like an offering to heaven".

Ashkenazy made no comment afterwards except to murmur "exotic-smelling
piano ..."

Dan Wilson