Jim; I still use hot hide glue for my Ivory work. As for plastic, PVCE is far superior to contact cements which tend to disolve the plastic. If you happen to get alittle PVCE on the top of the blank when glueing, it wipes off without damaging the surface. Contact cement will damage the surface. If your ivories are cupped, all is not lost. I've had good luck with soaking the ivories in water and cleaning them - then drying them slowly in a low oven. The trick is to turn the ivories over (cupped side down) until they eventually flatten. The time will depend on the thickness of the ivory. Most ivory heads are tapered front to back, so be sure that there is still enough thickness to work with once they are glued back on before going to all this trouble. One more note on glues. The secret for good bonding is good surface preparation. This means getting ALL the dirt and oil off before glueing. When I redo an ivory keyboard (or even for a few keys) I remove the coverings and clean them. Then I take off all the old glue and gunk with a router. At this point, you can either glue the ivories on directly, or use glue wafers - this depends on what is needed to get back to the original key thickness. Glueing is done with hot, but touchable brass plates and clamps. Hide glue is the only glue I am aware of that gives you extremely strong bonding, yet lets you steam the ivories off without damaging them. It was good enough for the old timers - look at how well the keyboards on historic instruments have survived. Incidentally, you can make your own glue wafers out of muslin or an old percaile bed sheet. Just soak the cloth in hide glue, squeegee off the excess and dry the cloth on cookie trays. When the cloth is dry, cut it to size with a paper cutter. Doug Kirkwood, RPT N.H Chapter, PTG
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC