Buckskin

[Robert A. Anderson]

Del F. wrote:

"For a variety of reasons, mostly political, but well beyond the control
of
Baldwin, the natural buckskin traditionally used for knuckles and hammer
butts was becoming difficult, if not impossible, to get at any price in
the
quantities needed for their production. And the obscene worldwide -- OK,
mostly the U.S. -- demand for beef had not yet reached the level that we
were willing to sacrifice a good deal of its crop lands and devastate a
good
share of the worlds rain forests to ensure a steady supply. A demand
which
leaves, of course, a surplus of residual cowhides. (It's pretty hard to
get
at the beef without first removing the hide.)"

I thought buckskin came from deer. My idea of cowhide is something a lot
stiffer. I thought that the knuckles I have seen in some late '50s
pianos were cowhide because of a scarcity of buckskin. So somebody set
me straight, please.

Bob Anderson
Tucson, AZ