well I'm surprised to hear it, because neither of the following two refs worked on the oxime of MDP2P. Ab2 wasn't the only one for whom they failed. but if it worked as you say without an acid in alcohol, then i guess its time to eat some crow
JACS 111, 6228 (1989)
To a solution of the oxime (24.6 mg, 0.521 mmol) in 10% H2O-THF (30ml) were added aluminum amalgam, which was prepared from 0.25g of granular aluminum and 2% HgCl2 (0.1ml) in 10% H2O-THF (0.5ml). The reaction mixture was stirred for 3h at room temperature. 3ml conc NaHCO3 was added, and the reaction mixture was filtered and the filter cake washed with ethyl acetate. The filtrate was diluted with water and
extracted with ethyl acetate. The extracts was washed with brine, dried over MgSO4 and concentrated in vacuo to give 20.34 mg (85%) of the desired amine as an oil.
JOC 56(15), 4706 (1991)
A solution of the oxime (11g, 19 mmol) in 250ml dry THF was treated with aluminum foil (5g, 190 mmol) that had been cut into small pieces and immersed successively in 2% aqueous HgCl2, distilled H2O and THF. The dark gray suspension was stirred for 12h at room temperature, at which time TLC revealed the absence of starting material. The suspension was filtrered and concentrated to yield 7.8g (75%) of the product amine as a light yellow oil.