I've had hide heads on banjos most of my life. I've never had to clean one. Depending on how grungy it is, grunge is beautiful. IMHO. The stains that show that the banjo have been played a lot give the banjo character, as far as I'm concerned. Paint would be another matter. The only hide head I've ever had split was on a banjo mandolin and I think the stress of that many string tuned to the tension that you need finally did the head in. I've replaced skin heads too, and it's far less mysterious than it might seem. Les B could tell you that. I wetted the head until it was very pliable, mounted it on the rim, tightened the nuts enough to pull the head tight to the rim, and then put the whole banjo in the oven on the lowest temperature, just to dry the head out so that it would shrink. Don't set it at 400 and come back a half hour later. You have to watch it, and check it, but it worked fine for me. I've also heard that people squirt lighter fluid on the head and light it. The lighter fluid will burn off very quickly (or so I was told) without starting the whole banjo on fire. I don't recommend that method. For cleaning wood, I'm likely to use Murphy's oil cleaner. It will clean up the wood, and oil it at the same time, without hurting the surface. I have a five string banjo I bought for $10.00. The guy who was selling it had kept it for at least thirty years and got it from someone else who'd had it as long as he could remember(who got it from someone else.) It's hand-made, and beautiful. When I got it, it still looked like it had the original head on it. And it still does, last time I cracked the case.

All this said, I am definitely NOT an expert on banjo heads. What I know, I picked up from what other people said, and what I've tried. It sounds like Steve is your man for the best advice.

By the way, when I bought my beautiful $10 banjo, it was listed in the newspaper. I called the number, figuring that the parts alone would be worth $10, even if the banjo was unplayable. When the guy answered the phone, the first question I asked, heart racing madly, was "Does it have four or five strings?" He said, "I don't know, let me go and look..." When he came back, he said, "It's got five strings, but one string doesn't come all the way up the neck." No wonder he only wanted $10 for it. It had a broken string, too. But, I paid him the full $10.00. :-)

Jerry