Black Ebonies

[Kjell Sverre Fardal]

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List!

After some interesting (the informations given by Bill Bremmer were of great
interest to me...!), and some humourous responds about yellow ivory, I would
like to ask you what you do with the black (ebony) keys!

In my workshop (est.1930) we have done this for years in the following way:

1. Clean the ebony (soap / water)

2. Sand them to a smooth surface (400 - paper / ev. 240 first)

3. Apply liquid A) (recipe given below...), and let dry (30 - 60 
   min.)

4. Apply liquid B) (recipe given below...), and let dry (30 - 60
   min.)

5. Use steelwool (very fine!) and vaseline-oil to get a smooth surface.

6. Wipe off oil with a dry cloth.

If it`s real ebony (or other woods with equivalent qualities), they should
now have a nice black satin surface (also with a good "touch-feeling" for
the pianist...).


Liquid A):  100 gr. Anilinechloride
                900 gr. Water ("aqua purificata")

Liquid B):    50 gr. Coppersulfa
                100 gr. Potassium Dichromat

                           to be resolved (decomposed?) in

                700 gr. Water ("aqua purificata"),

                           then added

                150 gr. Hydrochloric acid 2 M

I hope my translations from Norwegian are correct...! (I just give the
recipe to our local pharmacist, and he makes 1 litre of each...)

You can ev. do the following test on a piece of wood (spruce f.i.): 

Apply A):  you get a sort of yellow color.
Apply B):         "          "         "        "
Applyt A) + B) on the same spot: a nice, deep black color will arise!

Do you use any methods like this in the US, or is it just a Eureopean
variant?

Just beeing curious...

Kjell Sverre


Kjell Sverre Fardal, NPTF / Europiano
ksfardal@online.no
Kristiansand / Norway


 


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