Question on glue to repairing Piano key board

[Malcolm Eaton]

I have a question on what glue one should consider to use to carry out minor repair to piano key board. My problem is that one of the black keys on our 60 year old piano has come unstuck and fallen off and needs regluing. It would appear that it would have been originally glued with animal glue.
I look forward to any advise on carrying out this repair.
Cheers Malcolm Eaton

[Chesand]

My brother-in-law repairs and tunes pianos but unfortunately he is away at the moment. If you do not get an answer before he is back in 2 weeks, I will ask him.

[Malcolm Eaton]

My brother-in-law repairs and tunes pianos but unfortunately he is away at the moment. If you do not get an answer before he is back in 2 weeks, I will ask him.

So Far I have not been able to obtain any information on the glue one should use on gluing the black key.
I would appreciate if you would ask your brother-in-law on this matter.
Cheers
Malcolm Eaton

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I've had little experience with piano repairs beyond re-gluing loose veneers, however I've had assorted adventures with segmenting and inlays using ebony, ivory, bone, plastic etc. in my woodwork. Based on this, here's a few suggestions:

• Rubbing the joint with PVA should work fine for the black keys, if ebony or stained timber... but definitely not recommended for the white, if real bone or ivory.
• For plastic keytops, a contact cement is probably better.
• However, given what you say, hide glue would be my preference IF that was what was used originally. It makes for simpler future k/b repairs and helps maintain the value.

Mind you, I'd also suggest waiting on BIL's advice if you really value the piano.

[Master Splinter]

A second thumbs up for hide glue. If the broken bits are easily removable, you may be able to re-bond with no new glue simply by heating the old glue with steam from a kettle till it goes sticky again.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of buying some hide glue, pop down to the shops and buy some gelatine powder.

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luth...tchenglue.html

Preparation: roughly scrape off any big lumps on the bits to be fixed, and warm them over a kettle to soften whatever remains on there a little. Squidge on some new glue, hold it in place (lightly) and wait till it cools. Fixed for another 60 years (hopefully).

Personally, I wouldn't use anything but hide glue, if that's what it was originally glued with (hide glue is the only glue that is easy to rework, and it's the only glue that needs no surface preparation to reglue).

[Chesand]

Malcolm

I have spoken to my BIL and he uses Aquadhere. However, that might be sacrilege to the purists.

Hope that helps

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Malcolm

I have spoken to my BIL and he uses Aquadhere. However, that might be sacrilege to the purists.

Hope that helps

It is not really just for the purists, it is also for those who want a good job and to retain the value of their items. Using a PVA or other modern adhesive is often counter productive. They do not bond well to the animal glue and also are not easily reversible so if you make a mistake or it moves a bit you are 'unstuck' as in 'in a mess' and have damaged the value of the piano/other antique. As others have said here, the great thing about animal glue is that a bit of steam or hot water will soften it and you can often just re-join the pieces. If there is a lot of dirt or mould in the glue then you do need to scrape it back/dissolve it off with some warm water on a cloth but you only need to do the minimum to clean up the joint, then apply a little more animal glue and the new glue bonds well to the old and you have a great fix. I use the original pearl hide glue in a glue pot but you can buy ready-made hide glues. U-Beaut sell Pearl Glue, and I have seen a bottle of ready made Titebond liquid hide glue at Carba-tec ($14.00). Look at their on-line catalogues. I have never used the Titebond product but it sounds ideal for your needs.

[AlexS]

I have never used the Titebond product but it sounds ideal for your needs.

I've used the Titebond hide glue and agree, it should be ideal.

[simso]

I own and run a repair business, we repair pianos and redo complete keyboards, selleys kwik grip is just fine, wood glue is really not suitable for plastic items