Ivory keytops

[Jean-Jacques Granas]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
Hello all,

I'm reading all the ivory keytops stuff with great interest, as an ivory =
job is awaiting me.

Could you explain what type of glues you're talking about. By 'white =
glue' do you mean regular water soluble carpenter's glue? Past =
experience tells me the ivories curl up upon contact with the stuff. I =
gather, therefore, that it's something else. The, what is CA glue? Is =
this a type of contact cement, the stuff druggies sniff in the city park =
at night? :-)

Jean-Jacques Granas



---- Original Message -----=20
  From: antares=20
  To: Pianotech=20
  Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 10:59 AM
  Subject: Re: Ivory keytops



  On 3-jan-04, at 3:12, Richard Strang wrote:


    Hello, list,
    Once again, I learned a big lesson the very hard way, so I thought =
I'd
    share my grief with you all.
    I worked on an old player upright last night. It was a 1907 variety, =
but
    someone in California had rebuilt it very well. Why? Who knows? But =
it was
    in very good shape, and close to pitch.
    All the ivory keytops, the squares, were coming off. about 15 had =
been
    off for quite some time, but the customer had saved them and gave =
them to me
    to glue back on. I also gave a tug at all the rest that had not come =
off yet
    and found that most of them were loose. I got out my trusty PVC-E =
glue and
    proceeded to glue them all back on.
    My big mistake? The glue paints on very white and pretty, and I took =
it
    for granted that it would dry that way and would hide the finger =
prints and
    other imperfections that were on the top of the keys that had not =
had a
    keytop on for a while. When I started taking the rubber bands off =
and
    reinstalling the keys, I got a big surprise. PVC-E glue dries =
perfectly
    clear, leaving all imperfections glaring through the keytop which =
were all
    very well glued on now. The job looks terrible, even though there =
are now
    keytops installed which I'm sure feel very much better than the key =
did
    without the ivory. Even so, it is very obvious which keys had been =
bare for
    a while. Should have I used another white glue, such as Titebond? I =
have
    always stayed away from the regular white glues for keytops. Anyway, =
a word
    to the wise. Don't do what I did. If you are going to use PVC-E glue =
for
    ivory keytops, make sure the keytop surface is WHITE before gluing. =
Lesson
    learned.

    Richard



  Hello Richard, I am not an ivory specialist but I have found a neat =
way of fixing this problem.
  Thanks to Susan Kline I make use of two different glues.
  One is the white glue for wood and the other is the CA glue, the one =
that glues very fast and for ever.
  So what I do is this :
  First I clean the wood on which the ivory top had been glued with my =
sharp little pen knife, because indeed the stains of dirty fingers will =
shine through.=20
  I also make sure that the ends where the ivory heads and tails connect =
are white again, although I am very careful not to scrape away ivory and =
thereby damage the connection.
  I also carefully remove old glue from the ivory itself, again with my =
little knife. I do not sand because that is too rough and uncontrolled.
  When I am sure that the surfaces are reasonably clean, I take from my =
tool bag a small container with white glue and the CA glue. To spread =
the glue I use a very thin wooden sateh stick of which I always have a =
few in storage because I also use them for applying glue on shanks etc.
  With the sateh stick I very carefully apply a thin film of white glue =
on the wooden surface of the key and also 'wet' the ivory connection =
between head and tail.
  With the CA glue holder I apply thin drops on the ivory and try to =
spread that out evenly too, also on the connecting side but very very =
thin.
  Now I put the two together very precisely and press firmly for a =
minute or so.
  That is enough, because the two glues have chemically bonded and the =
ivory will probably never come off again and will look white and clean =
as before.
  If the ivories have curled over time due to humidity changes, it is =
another story because then you need key top clamps so the repair I =
described above is an 'on the road repair'.
  Again thanks to Susan Kline who invented the bondage of CA glue and =
white glue.

  friendly greetings
  from
  Andr=E9 Oorebeek




-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----






-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----




  Amsterdam - The Netherlands
  0031-20-6237357
  0645-492389
  www.concertpianoservice.nl





-------------------------------------------------------------------------=
-----


  _______________________________________________
  pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/08/0c/af/50/attachment.htm

---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--