Plastic not Ivory is used for Piano's today

[Guest guest]

Since the fifties Ivory isn't used for piano keys anymore.

 

Wikipedia says about ivory piano keys:

" Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness. Spruce

is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the black keys were

made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory, but

since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty,

plastics are now almost exclusively used. Also, ivory tends to chip more

easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited

quantities. At one time, the Yamaha firm innovated a plastic called

" Ivorine " or " Ivorite " , since imitated by other makers, that mimics the look

and feel of ivory. "

[Guest guest]

Hi JTwigg,

Thanks for this - I read the same wikipedia entry in my research. (what

did we do before wikipedia?) :-) I also read in a lot of other places

that some piano companies used ivory for key covering into the 1960's -

but it ends up that it doesn't matter for us since the piano we're

buying was made somewhere between 1913 and 1920. It undoubtedly had

ivory keys at time of manufacture, but has since been re-keyed in

plastic, so this is now a non-issue for us. Thanks for the info,

though! Very helpful. And about the Ivorine/Ivorite-type products -

I've read in my research that serious concert pianists can't tell the

difference in that and ivory . . . but some also say they can't feel the

difference ivory and polished plastic. (And I won't go into the fact

that some pianos somehow have mastodon tusks used to cover their keys -

I don't know the details on that, but whew, if my son was upset about an

elephant's tusks in our home, he would have truly lost it over a

prehistoric animal being anywhere other than in a museum!) :-)

Have a great day!

Lorraine

 

 

On

Behalf Of wwjd

Monday, June 09, 2008 5:47 AM

 

Plastic not Ivory is used for Piano's today

 

Since the fifties Ivory isn't used for piano keys anymore.

 

Wikipedia says about ivory piano keys:

" Piano keys are generally made of spruce or basswood, for lightness.

Spruce

is normally used in high-quality pianos. Traditionally, the black keys

were

made from ebony and the white keys were covered with strips of ivory,

but

since ivory-yielding species are now endangered and protected by treaty,

 

plastics are now almost exclusively used. Also, ivory tends to chip more

 

easily than plastic. Legal ivory can still be obtained in limited

quantities. At one time, the Yamaha firm innovated a plastic called

" Ivorine " or " Ivorite " , since imitated by other makers, that mimics the

look

and feel of ivory. "