[pianotech] Bleaching ivories

John Delacour JD at Pianomaker.co.uk
Fri Sep 10 15:26:55 MDT 2010


At 08:14 -0400 09/09/2010, Richard Ucci wrote:

>When using the peroxide gel, will the head curl up ?
>Can this be applied to the head while attached to the key?

What you will find is that the heads, or tails, or both will detach 
themselves where the glue holding them to the wood is already hardly 
doing its job, and that is to say mainly in the middle of the 
keyboard.  The ivories that pop off needed re-gluing anyway.

What causes them to detach themselves is the swelling of the ivory 
through absorption of water.  The thinner you apply the cream 
peroxide, the less likely the ivory is to come loose, but then you'll 
need more applications to get the keys white.  I let nature take its 
course and re-glue as necessary.  On some jobs  I get none come off 
and on others there may be as many as 20 to do.  The strength of the 
original glue also varies a great deal.

JD






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