Gluing Ivory with CA Glue

[Mike and Jane Spalding]

Dan,

In my former career, anyone who had done something once was likely to be labeled "expert", particularly if it was a job no-one else wanted.  My "expertise" comes from 1) reading the journal reprints about ivory repairs, and 2) a handful of pianos with loose or chipped ivories during my 2 years as a piano technician.  So my experience does not include data on how well the repair holds up after 15 or 20 years.  However, I have been very pleased with the immediate results, and I'm confident enough with what I'm doing that I'll gladly share.  

I haven't tried to bleach a set of old ivories.  One of my mentors taught me to clean keytops with Softscrub, which not only removes the grime, but seems to lighten them a little bit.  (it will remove magic marker from plastic keytops, too).  One of the reprint articles describes the peroxide and sun routine - I think that's also been described here on the list, but I've never tried it.

If a cracked top is otherwise worth saving, I have used AcryliKey to fill the crack.  You have to open the crack up to make room for a reasonable width of patch, and to present a clean surface for bonding.  Use a triangular file, or triangular scraper, or exacto knife blade.  I've been very satisfied with  Acrylikey for chips and cracks.  The only problem I've encountered is color matching on poor quality ivory that's more gray than yellow or white.

regards,

Mike Spalding, RPT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Duplexdan@AOL.COM>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 12:12 AM
Subject: Re: Gluing Ivory with CA Glue


> Mike,
> 
> Excellent recap on traditional ivory gluing as contrasted with CA glue. 
> Thanks.
> Since you seem to be quite expert with ivories can you give me some input on 
> two things on the subject:
> 
> 1.  How do you go about whitening 200 year old ivories
> 2.  What do you do about cracks in the tops.
> 
> PS What method do you use for chips in the ivories? I have found that the 
> Acrylykey method is very effective.
> 
> DanFranklin
> SingingTone
>