The Keys to Happiness

Restoring ivory keys

The key is the first connection with playing the piano. It is through this important part that the sound is generated, the volume controlled, if you are good enough tone adjusted, and feed back received. The vibration of the piano is felt through the key, the better quality the piano, the better quality the feedback. Keys have been finished with many different materials. Early keyboards were finished with different types of wood, ebony, pear, rosewood, maple, all very hard timbers. Often this meant that the white keys as we know them were black, (or other shades of dark woods that were used.) Ivory sourced from elephants and walrus then became the material of choice around the beginning of the 1800's. Plastic has been used for about 100 years now, some of the early plastics were made from potato starch. Ivory can still be sourced, but is very expensive, check out this website to see what type of ivory it is because if I tell you, you wont believe me! - Ivory

The keys I am working on at the moment are from a Kaim piano made around 1900. Kaim began making pianos in Stuttgart in 1819 and were piano makers to the court of Wurtemburg. We've worked on several Kaim grand pianos since I started my apprenticeship, and all have been pianos of the highest quality. Actually - in thinking about it, all piano makers I have seen from Stuttgart have been of the highest quality.

Learn much much more about pianos at my works website - www.shacklefordpianos.com