Buckskin

[Delwin D Fandrich]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert A. Anderson" <fndango@azstarnet.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: October 02, 2000 1:09 PM
Subject: Buckskin


>> 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
>
----------------------------------------------------

Buckskin does come from deer. And, I guess, a few other similar creatures
that we ask to give up their lives for the good of our musical enjoyment.

However, cowhide of adequate quality can be processed into a reasonable
facsimile, I am told. At the time both were apparently in short supply.

Del