I find that the quality of my nails has changed as I’ve aged (72 yo) and it is often difficult for me to make a good sound. That is one of the reasons I’ve started composing. Does anyone have a suggestion for a good nail conditioner?

On my left hand, the calluses have built up to such an extent that often times, I feel my fingers slipping off of the strings. Especially the nylon treble strings. What do you good people do to take care of the calluses? Do you file them daily with a pumice stone? Do you apply hand cream to them every night?

Currently, I prepare my nails with 1x1 inch pieces of 600 grade sandpaper for rough shaping, then old, worn-out pieces of the same (probably de-facto 1200 grade or finer) for final polishing. Many days I do just the polishing. Over the decades (like most of you, probably), I've learned to detect even microscopic roughness by running the opposite thumbnail along each nail. With all that in mind, would micromesh be worthwhile? It's quite expensive, and I imagine it would be hard to get the thick pads positioned to polish the inside of my nails, where I like to focus the most. I should also mention that I play with relative-short nails (just 1-2 mm past the flesh).