[pianotech] removing ivories

[David Stocker]

Skipping past all of the discussion about why you would want to save an entire set (Oh, the horror!)

If you really want to spend the extraordinary time and effort of perfectly preserving an entire set, why not think about removing the wood, rather than removing the ivory?

Table saw/band saw, then a belt sander or sandpaper taped to a flat surface, then scrape off the last bits with a sharp knife. 

If that is too much work to think about until someone needs them and is willing to PAY for the work, I might just cut off the front ends of the keys and put them in a box. 

In real life, I just use a knife to remove them all. If they break, toss ‘em. If they don’t, they go into the box ‘o’ ivories. Needed three heads and a tail just this week. 


David Stocker, RPT
Tumwater, WA

From: Dale Probst 
Sent: Saturday, January 07, 2012 12:34
To: Rob & Helen Goodale ; pianotech at ptg.org 
Subject: Re: [pianotech] removing ivories

Rob, 
I've done it various ways:
1) Iron on wool setting, soaked strips of packing felt cut to fit heads/tails, felt knife to pry ivory loose with. Works pretty well on ivory glued with wafers, I've never done a set without at least some breakage, especially on tails. I shortened the felt knife blade to about an inch long.
2) Dry iron, felt knife- I ended up doing this on a 1970 Kawai with one piece tops. I'm not sure what the glue was but it was impervious to steam, tops were glued directly to whited keystick. I managed to save 49, two were already damaged, I broke one.
Trying to save old ivory reminds me of a quote from Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance- 
"Assembly of Japanese bicycle requires great peace of mind."

Dale Probst
Registered Piano Technician
Ward & Probst, Inc.
dale at wardprobst.com
940.691.3682




On Jan 7, 2012, at 2:05 PM, Rob & Helen Goodale wrote:


  I'm wondering about methods to safely remove old ivories from junk pianos.  I've got a junker that has ivories in reasonable condition and I'd like to try and remove them for future re-use.  Every attempt I've made in the past has resulted in them breaking into pieces.  I've heard of techniques ranging from using a steam iron to soaking the keys, even dampening them and placing them in a microwave.  Is there a proven sure-fire way to remove them without breaking them?  Even if one breaks the set will no longer match.

  Rob Goodale, RPT
  Las Vegas, NV
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