[ In response to a message from Andy Taylor, dated 05Feb98

Andy-

You said this is a 'keeper' piano with really bad keytops.  My mother, who
is a very accomplished pianist, absolutely hates plastic keytops.  When
we set out to get her the piano of her dreams, new or rebuilt, money is
no object (to a point!), ivories were a must.  What we settled on was a
new, top of the line Yamaha with their ivory imitation keytops.  She loves
it.  That piano is more enjoyable for her to play than the $40,000 Steinway
sitting next to it.  Somewhere along the line, I heard that those keytops
could be purchased and installed.  If you are interested, perhaps this is
something to check out.

> I do have an old Foster I have been parting out (ruined soundboard) which
> has a perfect set of ivory keytops.  I doubt that the whole set of keys
> would interchange -- they rarely do.

I assume you are referring to putting one set of keys in another piano's
keybed.  Even the same year and model usually wouldn't work without a lot of
tweaking.  Suggestion:  since you have another of the same make and similar
model piano, maybe the entire keybed, along with the keys, would fit in the
'keeper' and mate up with the action properly.

As far as removing the ivories, I have removed a lot of them for use as spares
for other pianos, but I have never tried to do an entire set. My method of
removal is to use an old clothes iron.  You heat ivory from the top with the
iron to melt the glue under the ivory, then the ivory  is easily removed.  I
usually use a damp cloth between the ivory and the iron to insure the ivory
itself is not damaged, warped, or burnt.  If you try this, I'd suggest
practicing with junk keytops to get your heat setting and timing correct.

To replace the ivories, I usually clean the key down to the wood, and glue the
ivory back on with a glue wafer from Schaff.  The wafer contains white cloth
and glue necessary to get the original nice clean white look to the ivory
again.  I believe there was discussion on tips to get the ivory placed,
positioned and glued properly using these wafers, in the MMD, in the past.
You might check the archives.

Gary Rasmussen