At 15:39 -0700 21/4/10, David Ilvedson wrote: >These YouTube videos of a Steingrabber & Sohn upright is well >done...good craftsmanship. In the 2nd one he uses 30% hydrogen >peroxide in the Sun to whiten the ivories The prior sanding of the ivories was quite unnecessary. The job could have been done with just peroxide (the cream, as I said, is more convenient and labour-saving) and the ivory polished afterwards. This way you lose no thickness of ivory. A few months ago I bleached a set that was far worse than this Steingraeber without needing to do any sanding. I don't use a buffing wheel to polish the ivory either since that abrades the softer "summer growth" more than the harder parts and it is always detectable. After bleaching I remove any scratches with P800 - 1200 wet-n-dry and then polish with chalk and alcohol on a hard block covered with white sheep leather. It's almost as quick and leaves a glass-like surface. I found his way of removing the chase bushings painfully slow and inefficient. All he needed to do was soak them and leave them for a bit before pulling them out clean with small flat-nose pliers. No chisels (I noticed his knife was terribly blunt -- cfr. our Moroccan turner's perfect chisel) no files. His glue was also overcooked and sticky. JD
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC