Question concerning keytops

[John R Fortiner]

On Wed, 21 Jul 1999 19:41:47 -0400 John Gunderson
<jgunderson@monmouth.com> writes:
> List:
> I have two questions concerning key tops:
> 
>  1.  I have a customer with a brand new grand piano.  I have to 
> replace
> an ebony key top.  Can anyone suggest a safe way to remove the 
> original
> key top without pulling up splinters or damaging the key?
Examine the key stick to determine the direction that the grain is
running - not along the length of the key :-), but to determine if the
grain is coming towards the top of the key stick if looked at from either
side.  What you want to do is use a chisel to remove the top - but the
chisel must be used in the direction that the grain is rising.  ( Am I as
clear as mud on this??)  Maybe it would help if you knew what you did not
want to do so I'll try that way.  You do not want any splintering to
occur in a direction that would be towards the bottom of the key stick -
therefore use the chisel in the direction ( front-back or back-front )
that doesn't encourage the wood to split deeper and deeper towards the
bottom of the key stick.   
btw normally those sharps will just pop off with very little wood damage.
> 
> 2.  I have another customer who just purchased a used spinet from a
> store I do business with.  There are two natural key tops that must 
> be
> replaced. I want the repair to be seamless.
Seamless?????  The only tops that are that way that I have seen are made
of plastic - normally acrylic.  They used to be available in .090
thickness, but now are only in .075".  I use them all the time for my
recovering.  I doubt that the thickness difference from one keytop to a
replaced keytop would be very noticable.  Regarding the "shade" of white
- well, there are only about as many of those as there are strings in a
piano - no make that several times as many.  You might want to try Vagias


Vagias Ventures
     265 Prospect Street
     Baden, PA  15005-1819
     (724) 869-2842
     FAX: (724) 869-8341

I hope that this has helped you at least a little. 
Good Luck
John R. Fortiner
Billings, MT. 
 

  I do save old plastic 
> keys
> for such repairs but I don't have anything that matches.  I do have 
> a
> sample of the color I am looking for and the thickness of the 
> existing
> tops is .090".  Can anyone suggest where I can find key tops that 
> will
> match?
> 
> Thanks...   John Gunderson, Associate member, North Jersey Chapter.
> 
>                     "Freedom is something we give each other,
>                       independence is something we give ourselves."
> 

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