Real Ebony wood for sharps, pictures

[MICHAEL MORVAN]

Mark,
    Ebony has been used since day one on many different keyed instruments, and it was, and still is, used for the naturals and sharps on keyboards. The question you ask is tricky to answer, we replace a lot of sharps here on piano and organ keyboards, many manufacturers used a poor man's ebony (different woods painted black, plastics, etc..) on their lower end models, but used genuine ebony on their better models. As for dates, I have noticed that a lot of  changes concerning the quality of materials and craftsmanship occurred after the great depression and it all went out the door after WWII. Ebony and Ivory are premium materials, always have been and always will be, but you cant beat them with any synthetic.  I've attached 3 pictures to this post, 1 painted mystery wood sharp, 1 plastic covered wood sharp and 1 genuine ebony sharp restored.   Mike

Michael A. Morvan
Blackstone Valley Piano
Dedicated To Advancing The Art Of Keyboard Restoration
76 Sutton Street
Uxbridge, Ma. 01569
(508) 278-9762
Keymaestro at verizon.net
www.pianoandorgankeys.com                                                                                              
www.thepianorebuilders.com
 ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark McConnell 
  To: pianotech at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 4:46 PM
  Subject: Real Ebony wood for sharps?


  Would anyone be able to enlighten me as to when real ebony wood was used for the black keys on pianos, and when it was replaced with another type of wood? Thank you.
  Mark


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