Another wood identification please...

[NazNomad]

Any ideas what this hardwood might be?

Not much of a smell, except one of age and mustiness.

It was on an old pump organ, if that helps?

Thanks

 

[AndyT]

I can't help on the wood, but I'll just point out that the organ was American made, which might help someone else thinking about what woods were available in the USA in the nineteenth century.

And having found a catalogue here http://antiquepianoshop.com/online-muse ... gh-warren/ it looks like Black Walnut was their most frequently chosen timber for the cases.

I guess you don't want a link to advice on how to restore it... :roll:

 

[NazNomad]

Good point. thanks.

 

[custard]

Looks like unsteamed American Black Walnut to me, same as this board,

Nice find.

 

[NazNomad]

Wow, I hope it is, there's loads of it ranging from hefty chunks to thin boards. Thanks.

 

[NazNomad]

From what I can find out, that organ appears to have been made around 1889... Blimey.

 

[NazNomad]

Spent a couple of hours a̶n̶n̶o̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶i̶g̶h̶b̶o̶u̶r̶s̶ planing & trimming these...

 

[AndyT]

That's a very impressive haul of good wood, saved from being wasted.
Was there anything useful in the mechanical parts and the keyboard?

 

[NazNomad]

Kept all the keys and the organ stops, they are quite nice. Might make some 'decorative hipster nonsense' with those.

Loads of thin metal rods of various metals, ideal for whirligigs.

The decorative pedal-pump--thingies are nice.

The only bits I threw away were the worm-eaten parts.

 

[NazNomad]

The main body of all the keys is wood from the 'randomtree' but the black keys are topped with an ebony block.

I need to google how to identify ivory, but I'm pretty sure the white keys have a thin ivory veneer (it was made in 1889 when elephants were still on everyone's hit list).

... and the stops will make really nice knobs/coat hooks/etc.

 

[cowfoot]

Bagsy the stop that says "Sub Bass" for the dub reggae sound system I'll build one day!

 

[swb58]

From my limited experience I think that if the white keys are ivory they are in two parts, the big bit on the end and the longer narrow bit are two pieces. Plastic ones I've seen are a single piece.

 

[NazNomad]

Yes, the veneers on the white keys are in two parts. I am just assuming they are ivory. I will try the red hot needle test tomorrow.

Ivory won't burn, bone will.

 

[swb58]

I don't think they'd have used bone so you're probably safe to say it's Ivory.
Did I hear something about a new ban on ivory on the radio yesterday?
There'd be a market for it in the furniture restoration world but it might come under the same heading as guns and knives on eBay.

 

[NazNomad]

Right, done the needle test.

They ain't ivory. The nearest thing I can identify from the late 1800's is an early type of cellulose.

''In 1862 Cellulose was first made artificially from gun-cotton by A.Parkes, of Birmingham UK. Called "Parkesine", it could simulate ivory.
In 1869 John & Isaiah Hyatt (1837 - 1920), of New York, produced Celluloid from camphor and pyroxlin (cellulose nitrate), and in 1870 Hyatt was granted a patent in the USA.
Cellulose has been used for the key coverings on the cheaper pianos since then''

In a way, I'm glad they're not ivory.

 

[custard]

They ain't ivory.

Are you sure? They look exactly like ivory. I've seen plenty of artificial ivory and generally speaking it doesn't have those organic looking striations, and why would anyone bother veneering an artificial substitute? The best modern ivory substitute is a German product called Elforyn, I'd veneer that because it's very expensive, but I didn't think earlier versions were.

Incidentally, I remember once seeing a desk for sale in a furniture exhibition in Los Angeles, it was shaped like an organ with re-purposed organ stops as drawer pulls. This would have been about 2005 when the "studio furniture" market was at its peak, so no doubt it sold for an astronomical price!

 

[NazNomad]

They ain't ivory.

Are you sure?

Not entirely, although a red-hot needle melted through it easily and I managed to set fire to a piece with a lighter and it fizzed away like a firework.

 

[swb58]

Remember not long ago an African country built up piles of confiscated ivory and set fire to it. I expect there's a video somewhere online, it wouldn't burn like a pile of Brazil nuts but . . . . .
Edit. It was in Kenya.

 

[MusicMan]

There was an early ivory substitute which was made of celluloid layered with thin cloth to give the appearance of the grain in ivory, though it did not have the cross-hatching. Since celluloid is very inflammable, that looks like what you have got. This is different from the modern artificial ivory, which I think Custard may have been referring to, which has the colour and approximate density and feel, but no striations.

You cannot mention ivory in any eBay advert. I tried to sell a piano for a neighbour once, which had ivory keys. This was perfectly legal as it was made before 1947, but eBay won't accept it.

It is illegal in the UK to sell any ivory that has been worked or remanufactured even if the original dates back to pre-1947.

 

[NazNomad]

Just had an email from a guy that restores old pump organs in the USA...

''Most post Civil War pump organs do not have Ivory keys''.