Key Bushing Mortises

[Farrell]

I am rebushing keys from an older spinet. The mortises on the front rail do
not have regular little recessed areas on each side of the mortise for the
little flap of bushing cloth that is typically left over the edge (on a
plane with the bottom of the key). All other keys I have rebushed or have
had rebushed had a nice little recessed area next to the mortise to
accommodate the left over flap. The old bushings from these keys had the
little flap, but the flaps were irregular in that some were partly submerged
in a crude recess, some were not submerged and stuck out below the bottom of
the key, etc., i.e. a real mess. My experience with this arrangement is that
it is difficult to get nice consistent dip with an irregular bottom to the
key.

So, what to do. If this were my piano for life, I would rout out or chisel
out the proper recess. This is not my piano, but I do want to have flat key
bottoms. Can I cut the bushings at the key bottom and not have any flap -
much like many center rail bushings are cut? That would certainly be the
easiest solution, assuming I would get proper performance (I don't see why
this would not work - or is it too easy to damage the bushing when setting
the key onto the pin?). If that is not a good idea, can someone suggest the
easiest method of making the little recess - I prefer not to make a career
out of this set of keys, but I do want to do a decent job. Thanks for any
ideas.

Terry Farrell