Ivory Keytop Cracks

[Richard Wagner]

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Hi Terry,

If I were you, rather than removing ivory from the existing crack thus
making it larger, in order only to re-fill it, I think I would leave the
crack itself alone, and try building up a layer of "AcryliKey II"
underneath the lip of the keytop just to provide stability and (hopefully)
to prevent the crack from spreading in the future.

I've drawn a little picture to try and illustrate what I mean, and am
attaching it with this Reply... Hope nobody on the List minds the extra
baggage   ;-)

Even if this method doesn't prevent further cracking in the future, it
won't prevent you from going ahead and filing out the crack as you
mentioned (below) and proceeding as you normally would with a regular chip
some time down the road if nessesary.

Good Luck.

		Richard Wagner RPT

		http://www.wagner-technical.com
 

At 09:27 PM 3/6/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello. I will be bleaching/sanding/buffing a 70 year old ivory-clad keyboard
>in the next few weeks as part of a rebuild. The ivories are in quite good
>condition - will require very little work. Several of the keytops have one
>small crack near the front edge of the keytop. You cannot see daylight
>through the crack. You would likely not even see the crack if it were not
>for the dark dirty nature of the inside edge of the cracks (you just see the
>dark crack line).
>
>What, if anything, to do? I should think this situation will lead to
>additional crack development. So would it be advisable to file out the crack
>to make it some nominal width (say 1/8" or 1/4" wide) and proceed to repair
>it with an ivory repair product such as AcryliKey II? My goal is to simply
>provide a defect-free
>ivory keyboard that has good potential to last some number of years without
>noticeable additional deterioration.
>
>Terry Farrell
>Piano Tuning & Service
>Tampa, Florida
>mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
>
>
>
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