Keytops

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matthew Todd" <pianotech88@yahoo.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 9:12 PM
Subject: Keytops


> Is it true in EVERY circumstance that all ivory keytops have two parts
(head and tail), and plastic tops come in one piece.  Or are there other
ways to tell the difference?
>
> Someone on the list told me that I can never ask a stupid question, so I
guess this is a test.  I am just starting out, but thanks!
>
> Matthew

    Yamaha, and perhaps some other brands in the past made some pianos with
one-piece ivory keytops, but it's very rare.  Even with the best joinery,
you can usually make out the seam between the head and tail if you get the
light to shine on it just right.  But the main give-away for ivory is the
fingerprint-like "grain," or swirly pattern.  It's more pronounced in some
ivory than other, but always there.  Sometimes it's polished smooth in the
middle of the ivory head from heavy use, but in the right light you can
still see the grain, resembling wood grain.  The way antique evaluators
determine if something is ivory is to heat a pin with a cigarette lighter
and poke it into the material in an inconspicuous place.  Burning plastic
smells like, well, burning plastic, while burning ivory smells like burning
hair or other organic matter, like when you accidentally burn your hair
leaning over the stove (ever fry ants with a magnifying glass when you were
a kid?)
    Some attempts were made in the past to simulate an ivory grain in
plastic.  The most common was probably "Ivorine," which has striations
(faint bluish lines, spaced about a millimeter apart) running the long way
through the keytops -- it's kinda hokey and looks not at all like ivory.
Now Yamaha has "Ivorite," another attempt to simulate ivory -- it has a
similar feel, and a similar almost-translucent look to it, but not the
characteristic grain that real ivory does.
    --David Nereson, RPT