Hey everyone,

I am building one of these:



Digital keyboard, and all the modern electronic bells and whistles, housed in a big beautiful gothic looking vintage piano - Slightly modified of course. The mechanics are pretty well shot, but the ivory keys are actually in quite good shape.

I know the whole issue of ivory is controversial, but it seems a real waste to just throw these keys away. I would like to actually have them put on my late 70's Baldwin. Despite some yellowing, and chipping I would highly prefer to do this.

I don't know anything about the subject; if it's possible, legal. Just seems really dumb to me to just throw them away.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

The keys are in a box right now?

If they are, just removing them is a big job, and they will probably not fit your Baldwin.

If you do want to keep them, a regular clothes iron, with a wet cloth folded over at least four times, laid above four or five keys at a time for about 30 seconds at a time will allow you to easily remove them. Make sure that the cloth is always wet, but not enough to drip and unglue key bushings.

Then, if time is on your side, lay them flat on a board in direct sunshine, with bleach if you like. They will whiten and curl.

Reinstalling them is a BIG job. Because of the curl, clamping is a must, as well as proper dressing of the key. And most likely they won't fit. Each keyset is different, even within the same brand.

Not usually feasible financially.

All the best.

Some things about genuine ivory;

First measure the length and grade against what is on your Baldwin now as per Jeans’ suggestion.

If you then still want to do this……. I used to do it the way Jean suggested but found that heating up so many keys at once allowed the steam to flow down between the keys and there is a risk of warping of the wood key lever. I also find that heating up so many at once tends to curl the ivory too much.

I do them now one at a time; with a pressing iron on dry and the dampened rag leave the iron on for 20 seconds or until you hear a faint click which is the old cement releasing the ivory head and tail.

The starting from the tail carefully slide a pocket knife blade under the front end and gently slide the tail upwards. The thickness of the knife blade will cause the tail to come upwards. Be careful not to chip the bonding edges between heads and tail. Picking up the tail halfway and then pulling sideways will remove the tail successfully.

Then slide the blade underneath the head overhang and slide it until it pops off. On a cardboard sheet lay the ivory heads and tails. DO NOT MIX THEM UP. Keep the same head with the same tail. One of the biggest problems with retrofitting ivory is the fact that some technicians try to match an rogue head with an existing tail, or the other way around...this creates more problems than fixes…..

Write the key name beside each head and tail as you go and then use tape over the bonding edges to hold them down to the cardboard and keep the mating edges clean.

For cleaning I use peroxide; not the stuff you buy in the store but the strongest mix you can get outside of the medical system which is volume 12 used by the hairdressing industry. There was a requirement here in BC to be licensed for this product until about 5 years ago when the hairdressing industry de-regulated.

The trick in the end is not the cleaning or the removing; it is just as Jean stated; the setting of the ivory with the proper cement product so that each ivory has the same colour tint or overtone. Getting the seam line correct is the biggest challenge. I do factory quality settings of ivory here at $150.00 per key.


So 52 ivories on the piano becomes big money……..best of luck with the project.

Keep in mind that there are lots of measurements that can go wrong on a project of this sort. If a front is the proper length and width, it does not guarantee that the tail is, and vice versa. These dimensions need to be matched 52 times (heads and tails would be 104 times, actually), so the odds are poor. We keep old ivories, but we may have to compare a lot of them to find a match for a single key.

Yes. If a customer has more than 12 keys that are missing or chipped, and I am asked to replace and match them from my stock, the cost will be more than a new plastic set.

I have kept all the ivory since I started in this trade, and tried to keep sets organized etc..

Matching ivory is a daunting task.

Wow, this sounds pretty intense and expensive! Well, maybe I might just pull them all off with the methods you suggest, label all of them, and just keep them around. I believe I could not bring myself to throw ivory of any kind away.

Thanks for the input!

Perhaps sell them to a local technician/rebuilder. The main legal issue is not to send them across international borders, the requirements make it impractical.

We buy ivory.

PM if interested.

The one thing I discovered about ivory is save the end key at the top...as many as you can get your hands on…. This one makes 3 new heads any length you require….

My father knew a fellow that used to take all the old ivory heads that were chipped. Then he would set some of them into a nice piece of hardwood.

Drill the appropriate amount of small holes in the inlaid heads and you have a nice cribbage board.

Poor piano