backchecks

[David Love]

Hot hide will work.  Take a pair of shears and cut the leather in the
middle (since it's not glued to the leather you can just slip the shears
between the leather and the felt).  Peel off the leather and scrape the
backcheck clean as much as possible.  Put on a thin coating of hide glue
on the wooden part of back check first.  Don't use any urea in the mix
as you want it to set up as quickly as possible.  Let the glue thicken
before you apply the glue to the leather and glue the top of the back
check first and do the entire set from one end to the other.  Go back to
the beginning and put the glue on the leather for the bottom end and
hold it in place with your finger for a 10 seconds or so and go to the
next one.  A clothes pin also works well.  When you finish go back to
the beginning and use a pair of flush cut center pin knippers (like #230
in the Schaff Catalogue) to nip off the excess on the low side of the
back check.  To get it done in 2-3 hours, you will need to precut the
leather before hand and preheat the hide glue just before you drive over
to the customer's house (assuming you are doing this on site) so that
the glue will reheat quickly once you arrive.  

David Love
davidlovepianos@comcast.net 

-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces@ptg.org] On
Behalf Of David Ilvedson
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 6:29 PM
To: pianotech@ptg.org
Subject: backchecks

List,

I have a Steinway D with numerous torn backchecks caused by poorly
shaped tails with deep checkering etc.   I need to repair and intend to
recover with buckskin.  I perused the archives and the only mention of
this was a good post by David Swartz.   He uses CA glue.   I do need to
do the repair within a time frame of 2 to 3 hours.   Would any other
glue work as well as CA without the wicking problems (if there are any)?
I would imagine hot hide glue would be the best but would the first
gluing hold after an hour enough to stretch the leather and glue the
other side?   I'm figuring on clothespins....

Thanks in advance

David Ilvedson, RPT




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