Hello everyone, it's been quite a while since I've posted.  I'm
still grateful for all the help I got online for my first player piano
restoration.  The Farrand I redid for our local museum (of which
I'm now the director!) is used regularly and gets lots of attention
from visitors, especially elementary students who come to tour.
It's probably our most photographed item.

The particular piano I restored uses zephyr skin for the pouches.
I still have a small supply, but upon researching it recently it's
almost impossible to find through the usual outlets.  However, there
is something else out there that seems to be the same thing.  It's
called 'goldbeater's skin', so called because it was (is?) used for
interleaving between the layers of gold when pounding it to gold leaf.

Its current use is for bookbinding repair of antique books.  The cost
is reasonable.  Has anyone tried this for pouch replacement?  See it
at this link:  http://www.talasonline.com/Goldbeaters-Skin 

Dan Harrett

 [ A. B. Bonds wrote in 060530 MMDigest :
 [ "As for airtight, will hydrogen do?  Gold-beaters' skin was used to
 [ line the immense silk gasbags (no, not politicians...) that provided
 [ lift for the Zeppelin airships.  Since each piece was about 8" x 24",
 [ hundreds of thousands of cows gave their all for each Zeppelin."
 [ -- Robbie