Could you please explain what a "go bar frame" for gluing on ivories would be? David Weiss ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Delacour" <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk> To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 5:04 PM Subject: Re: gluing ivories > At 16:26 -0400 28/9/07, Willem Blees wrote: > >>You can use CA glue... > > > Dear Lord please NO!! > > I do a lot of ivory replacement including covering whole keyboards in > recycled ivory and I use hide glue whitened with titanium dioxide > ("titanium white", a dense white which our forefathers would have been > happy to have at their disposal. > > If you do a lot of this work it is worth setting up a go-bar frame, but > the clamps (mine are from Schaff) are pretty good if you take precautions. > > If find it good if I'm doing a few or a lot to paint the glue on quite > thin and let it set, then paint on another coat and so on until you have a > good dense white covering spread very evenly on the key top. Then let it > dry completely. > > When you come to stick on the ivory, moisten the glue by brushing it > lightly with cold water and leave it for a couple of minutes to soften the > glue. In the meantime make sure the bronze clamping block is perfectly > clean, set everything up so that you will lose no time and drop the block > in very hot water for a moment or two. Then take it out very hot, quickly > towel it dry and position it on the ivory ready to clamp down. Besides > the main clamp it is good to use a pair of light soft-jawed clamps at the > sides of the key so that the ivory is aligned with the sides, or a least > one of them, and will not slip as you tighten the bronze block down. > > That's the basic procedure I use, but their are dozens of special tricks > and pitfalls to ivory work and every time I do the job, though it is > frequently, I think of some slight improvement. It is one of the > trickiest jobs in the business to get a perfect job and I just wish I > could have been around in the days when the ivory men were at work to see > exactly how they did it, though there were several standard ways. > > JD >
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