CBH Gluing on the sharps — Time-lapse

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Time-lapse of Carey Beebe gluing the sharps on a new keyboard.

A keyboard will not begin to look complete until the sharps (accidentals) are attached to their keylevers. While this example shows a clavichord, the principle is the same for all early keyboard instruments.

The bone-slipped solid grenadilla sharps have been prepared and any variations sorted in color graduation. All the keys are on the keyframe ready. The following takes about ten minutes in real life, but is compressed here to little more than thirty seconds.

Glue is applied to the bottom of one sharp which is then rubbed against its corresponding partner from the opposite end of the keyboard. The sharps are positioned hard back against a clamped straightedge, and centred on their levers in the available space between the natural key tails. They are pressed firmly for a moment while the glue grabs.

Unfretted Clavichord after J.C. Gerlach, Carey Beebe Sydney 2008, private commission under construction for a Sydney musician.

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[hpschdnu]

Titebond works perfectly for this job, and the rubbed joint is very strong.

[michaeljking]

what glue are you using? I thought from the description it would be animal glue, but the pot looks like a titebond...