Keytop Materials

[Dick Beaton]

Zi..
That is undoubtedly celluloid....if you touch a match to it it will flare
up and stink...I doubt if you can buy any of this....They started using it
instead of ivory back in the twenties..I think.   
Dick RPT MT


----------
> From: Z! Reinhardt <diskladame@provide.net>
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Keytop Materials
> Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 7:33 AM
> 
> Dear Listmates --
> 
> A friend of mine dropped off a sample of a keytop material she is trying
to
> find a match for.   Apparently she had been asked to replace only the 4
> damaged keytops rather than the whole set.
> 
> The material is weird at best.  Its color is quite yellow now.  There are
> "grain patterns" in the form of perfectly parallel striations running the
> length of the top.  The stuff is really quite flexible -- it can be bent
> very easily without breaking.  I suspect that this is cellulose.  (Yes, I
> hear many of you suggesting that I touch the stuff with a lit match to
see
> how well it burns...)
> 
> Is there anything out there that looks like, perhaps even acts like this
> stuff?  Does anyone know where this stuff can be obtained?
> 
> One last note -- to give the keys "that ivory look," the keytop material
> was cut into separate heads and tails, rather than in one-piece tops.
> 
> Thank you all in advance ---
> 
> ZR!  RPT
> Ann Arbor  MI
> diskladame@provide.net