Removing ivory without damaging it?

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Calin Tantareanu" <dnu@fx.ro>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2003 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: Removing ivory without damaging it?


> I have noticed that the ivory tends to curl, so I immediately placed each
> removed piece under a haevy weight to keep it straight.
> This worked, but not perfectly and some of the ivory keytops are now a bit
> curved. How does one get them back straight?
> I was thinking maybe again with a hot iron and wet cloth, and leaving them
> under a warm weight until they dry?
> Would this work with only water, no heat (just soaking the ivory)?
 >  Calin Tantareanu
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

    It can be tricky.  The side with the moisture swells and curls convex-ly.  So both sides have to be equally wet or dry.  In Ivoryton, CT, they had drying/bleaching racks in windows that faced south (where the term "bleachers" comes from) and ivory sorters would constantly turn them over when they started curling too much on one side.  This means sitting there all day.  I've tried dampening them on both sides, then clamping them in a paper towel between two flat boards or metal slabs, and this worked -- it just took a long time for them to dry.  Your idea of heating the weight might work, but you'd have to heat both sides of the ivory -- well, maybe not if they're physically restricted from curling (clamped).....after all, when we use the brass plates and wafer method of gluing, the brass plate gets heated but the underside with the wafer doesn't (except indirectly through the ivory itself).  Maybe a sandwich of two metal plates with the ivories clamped between them, with some cushioning, like paper towels, then stick the whole thing in the oven or heat with a heat gun??  .....  --David Nereson, RPT