Thank you Peter for your kind words. After reading everyone's responses I would like to pass on a few things. It is illegal to sell ivory, it is not illegal to reattach, clean, and buff an existing keyboard. That is a service that can still be offered to a client and still should be offered to a client. I make money replacing original ivory on keyboards, but I would not recommend doing so if the original keyboard can be restored legally. This is the service of an existing product or keyboard, not a sale. Fortunately, a lot of the keytops when they fall off, fall in between the keys and can be retrieved and put back on. Furthermore, most professional players still prefer to play on ivory, bone, and ebony, I still field many calls a month asking for it. Ivory, ebony, and bone are natural materials, natural materials grip your fingers, natural materials are cool to the touch, natural materials wick-off moisture, these are the three coveted properties of natural materials pertaining to keytops. When F&W banned the sale of new (pre-ban) ivory it nearly put me out of business. The application of that new (pre-ban) ivory and bone represented the majority of my business, It is now illegal to offer ivory, the industry was in shock, the industry was scared, and I knew that it would take years for the dust to settle. I had the best alternatives, I had bone, I had mineral plastic, I had acrylic plastic, but the industry/profession would never be the same. Here we are, how many years later trying to repair ivory with dental kits, acryli-key, and other materials, why? Because most still prefer to keep the instrument authentic, and most still prefer the feel of natural materials over synthetic materials. Fortunately for the musicians and rebuilders, the bone suppliers have significantly improved the quality of their keytops. The quality of bone now matches that of the new (pre-ban) ivory I used to apply. Bone is now the only natural material besides hardwoods available as an option for natural keytops. Bone is the only new natural material available if a client wants an original-styled keytop with all the properties of ivory, keep an open mind, we adapted to the last change we can adapt to this one.
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[Michael] [Morvan]
[Blackstone Valley Piano]
michaelmorvan9@gmail.com[Uxbridge] [MA] 01569
[508-340-6443]
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