Stieff Rebuild - New sharps

Quality is a collection of small details.  And for every piano, the first thing the pianist encounters is the keyboard.  For a high-end piano, the look and feel must be superb.  Inviting.

I enjoyed taking the time to ensure that the replacement sharps for this keyboard were second-to-none in fit and finish.

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The new sharps are made of natural ebony and supplied by PianoTek Supply.   I was thrilled with the craftsmanship and uniformity of the product.   Fitting the the new sharps to the old key sticks proceeded as follows:

• Remove old sharps with steam and leverage.
• Scrape old keystick as needed  (the old hide glue joint made this effort minimal).
• Glue new sharps, centered on old keystick.
• Bolster old keysticks with veneer applied with hot hide glue to allow the nice uniform sharps to be the ruling dimension (the old keysticks are not of uniform dimension).
• Sand veneer flush with the new keytop (this assures that pianist cannot ever feel a rough edge).
• Dye keystick sides black.
• Clean and polish new sharps (I used Howard's Feed and Wax for a light wax finish)

The picture below shows bolstering the keysticks with veneer, prior to final sanding and finish.

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Installed on keyframe:

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