gluing ivories

[David and Jean Weiss]

Could you please explain what a "go bar frame" for gluing on ivories would 
be?

David Weiss

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Delacour" <JD at Pianomaker.co.uk>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: gluing ivories


> At 16:26 -0400 28/9/07, Willem Blees wrote:
>
>>You can use CA glue...
>
>
> Dear Lord please NO!!
>
> I do a lot of ivory replacement including covering whole keyboards in 
> recycled ivory and I use hide glue whitened with titanium dioxide 
> ("titanium white", a dense white which our forefathers would have been 
> happy to have at their disposal.
>
> If you do a lot of this work it is worth setting up a go-bar frame, but 
> the clamps (mine are from Schaff) are pretty good if you take precautions.
>
> If find it good if I'm doing a few or a lot to paint the glue on quite 
> thin and let it set, then paint on another coat and so on until you have a 
> good dense white covering spread very evenly on the key top.  Then let it 
> dry completely.
>
> When you come to stick on the ivory, moisten the glue by brushing it 
> lightly with cold water and leave it for a couple of minutes to soften the 
> glue.  In the meantime make sure the bronze clamping block is perfectly 
> clean, set everything up so that you will lose no time and drop the block 
> in very hot water for a moment or two.  Then take it out very hot, quickly 
> towel it dry and position it on the ivory ready to clamp down.  Besides 
> the main clamp it is good to use a pair of light soft-jawed clamps at the 
> sides of the key so that the ivory is aligned with the sides, or a least 
> one of them, and will not slip as you tighten the bronze block down.
>
> That's the basic procedure I use, but their are dozens of special tricks 
> and pitfalls to ivory work and every time I do the job, though it is 
> frequently, I think of some slight improvement.  It is one of the 
> trickiest jobs in the business to get a perfect job and I just wish I 
> could have been around in the days when the ivory men were at work to see 
> exactly how they did it, though there were several standard ways.
>
> JD
>