Bone keys

[Avery Todd]

Stephen,

Any recipes for whitening a yellowed bone keyboard? Anything that might be
different than for ivory? I have one on a 'D' that came from Kluge.

Avery

At 11:11 PM 06/15/02 -0400, you wrote:
>Some have been asking about bone keys. As with any product there is both 
>good and bad bone, just like there is good and bad ivory, or good and bad 
>synthetics. Some bone suppliers (like Nelson) grade it and price 
>accordingly. Others (like the German companies) sell one product and leave 
>it to the customer to grade it - so you have to pre-sort to get consistent 
>keyboard covering, but it is a bit cheaper.
>
>Some bone will yellow, but not all, and most not as fast or as yellow as 
>ivory goes. It does get dirtier fast, but that, too, depends on the 
>quality. The best bone is not porous at all and looks almost like plastic. 
>What Nelson sells as 'antique' grade is much cheaper and quite porous. I 
>have heard that peroxide bleached bone gets yellower and more translucent 
>(greasier ?) faster than bone bleached with slaked lime in the traditional 
>fashion. The limed bone us is also whiter and easier to glue.
>
>Here is another case for buying a product of the best possible quality, 
>but you have to know what to look for to know what exactly _is_ the best.
>
>The historical organ-building book by Dom Bedos contains a recipe for 
>preparing bone for key coverings - messy business.
>
>Stephen
>
>Stephen Birkett Fortepianos
>Authentic Reproductions of 18th and 19th Century Pianos
>464 Winchester Drive
>Waterloo, Ontario
>Canada N2T 1K5
>tel: 519-885-2228
>mailto: sbirkett@real.uwaterloo.ca
>http://real.uwaterloo.ca/~sbirkett
>