<HTML><HEAD></HEAD> <BODY style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space" dir=ltr> <DIV dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Eras Medium ITC'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>Skipping past all of the discussion about why you would want to save an entire set (Oh, the horror!)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Eras Medium ITC'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">David Stocker, RPT<BR>Tumwater, WA<BR><BR> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><B>From:</B> <A title=dale@wardprobst.com href="mailto:dale@wardprobst.com">Dale Probst</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma"> <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5"> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, January 07, 2012 12:34</DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=rrg@unlv.nevada.edu href="mailto:rrg@unlv.nevada.edu">Rob & Helen Goodale</A> ; <A title=pianotech@ptg.org href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech@ptg.org</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [pianotech] removing ivories</DIV></DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Rob, <DIV>I've done it various ways:</DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV>Trying to save old ivory reminds me of a quote from Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance- </DIV> <DIV>"Assembly of Japanese bicycle requires great peace of mind."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV apple-content-edited="true"><SPAN style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium helvetica; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none" class=Apple-style-span><SPAN style="WIDOWS: 2; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; TEXT-INDENT: 0px; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; FONT: medium helvetica; WHITE-SPACE: normal; ORPHANS: 2; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); WORD-SPACING: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none" class=Apple-style-span> <DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space">Dale Probst<BR>Registered Piano Technician<BR>Ward & Probst, Inc.</DIV> <DIV style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space"><A href="mailto:dale@wardprobst.com">dale@wardprobst.com</A><BR>940.691.3682<BR><BR><BR></DIV></SPAN></SPAN></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <DIV>On Jan 7, 2012, at 2:05 PM, Rob & Helen Goodale wrote:</DIV><BR class=Apple-interchange-newline> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 9.00.7930.16423"> <DIV style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 15px" id=MailContainerBody canvastabstop="true" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" name="Compose message area"> <DIV><FONT face=Calibri>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.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Calibri></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Rob Goodale, RPT</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Calibri>Las Vegas, NV</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>