Wood material used in keyboard musical instruments

Recycled materials often are dry and stable, more affordable and at hand but their shapes sometimes challenge reuse.

name		mfg. ¹	use
Basswood	Tilia americana	a, e ⁶	key planks, action parts ²	large bright yellow medullary rays distinguish from European
Basswood	Tilia cordata	e	key planks, action parts, core wood ⁵	better strength and working properties but heavier than American
Beech	Fagus sylvatica	e	action rails, wrest planks, bridges ²	easier to plane
Beech	Fagus grandifolia	a	backposts, spacer blocks ³	glued joints often split ⁷
Birch	Betula spp.	a	trapwork, backposts, soundboard liners ³	one kind smells bad like mold
Cherry	Prunus serotina	a	action rails ⁵	used in larger squares
Chestnut	Castanea dentata	a	core wood ²	most common veneered corewood beginning around onset of blight
Ebony	Diospyros spp.	e,a	key touch plates ²	cheaper substitutes include dyed walnut and maple
Elm	Ulmus spp.	a	backposts, spacing blocks ²	usual structural wood in uprights - old fashioned "select hardwood"
Fir	Abies alba	e	core wood, back posts ³	European is stronger and heavier than brittle American species
Gum	Liquidambar styraciflua	a	solid case parts ²	carved pieces grained to match more expensive case wood
Mahogany	Swietenia mahoganii	e, a	solid case parts, veneer, decorative molding, ² action parts ⁴
Oak	Quercus robur	e	action rails, case sides ⁵	rarely used in America except as veneer
Pear	Pyrus communis	e	action parts ⁵	"Pear isn't as hard as hornbeam, but it is more pliable and takes a nice polish" (Turgan)
Poplar	Populus spp.	e, a	core wood ⁴	light color and weight, unstable diffuse to ring porous hardwood with irregular grain
Poplar	Liriodendron tulipifera	a	core wood ²	popular before and after chestnut
Rosewood	Dalbergia nigra	e, a	veneer, decorative molding ³	most painted over veneer
Scots pine	pinus silvestris	e	core wood, back posts ²	very easy to work
Spanish cedar	cedrela spp.	e	core wood ⁴	smelly
Spruce	Picea spp.	a	sounding boards, ribs, backposts, spacing blocks ²	almost universal soundboard material
Sugar maple	Acer saccharinum	a	action parts, rails, wrest planks, bridges ²
Sugar pine	Pinus lambertiana	a	key planks, ² soundboard ribs ⁴	available in wide boards with isolated knots
Swiss pine	picea abies	e	key planks, sounding boards, back posts ²
Sycamore	Plantanus occidentalis	a	backposts, spacer blocks, belly rails ³	peculiar to a couple midwestern makers
Walnut	Juglans nigra	a	solid case parts, veneer, decorative moldings, ² action rails, action brackets ⁵	common reed organ case material
Walnut	Juglans regia	e	solid case parts, veneer, decorative moldings, ² action brackets ⁵
White pine	Pinus strobus	a	case sides, ³ key planks ³	cheaper, lighter, finer grain than sugar pine

Table 1: Wood found in old pianos

Force and motion requirements limit broader application of mechanical keyboard systems through materials and tolerances.

species	spg ~12%	%t	%r	%v	MOR_l (MPa)	MOE_l (GPa)	compr para (MPa)	compr perp (MPa)
pinus strobus ⁸	0.35	6.0	2.3	8.2	3.3	8.5	33	3.0
pinus lambertiana	0.36	5.6	2.9	7.9	3.1	8.2	31	3.4
picea sitchensis	0.36	7.5	4.3	11.5	3.6	9.9	36	3.0
tilia americana	0.37	9.3	6.6	15.8	6.0	10.1	33	2.6
populus tremuloides	0.38	6.7	3.5	11.5	5.8	8.1	29	2.6
juglans cinerea	0.38	6.4	3.4	10.6	5.6	8.1	36	3.2
abies concolor	0.39	7.0	3.3	9.8	4.0	10.3	40	3.7
picea glauca	0.40	7.1	3.8	11.0	3.8	9.2	38	3.2
populus tremula ⁹	0.42				7.2	8.6	37
picea abies ¹⁰	0.42	7.0	2.0		7.5	10.5	50	5.5
pseudotsuga menziesii (avg)	0.48	7.3	4.5	11.6	8.6	12.2	53	4.8
tilia cordata ⁹	0.48	7.6	5.3		9.9	7.1	43	6.9
pinus silvestris	0.50	7.7	4.0	12.3	9.8	11.8	54
swietenia macrophylla	0.50	4.1	3.0	7.8	7.9	10.3	47	8.5
ailanthus altissima	0.53			10.8	8.1	10.5	36	7.8
juglans nigra	0.55	7.8	5.5	12.8	10.1	11.6	52	7.0
abies alba ¹¹	0.55					11.0		2.3
ulmus alata	0.66	8.9	4.9	13.8	10.2	11.4	47	8.5
fagus grandifolia	0.67	11.9	5.5	17.2	10.3	11.9	50	7.0
quercus alba	0.68	9.0	5.3	15.8	10.5	12.3	51	7.4
acer saccharinum	0.68	9.9	4.8	14.7	10.9	12.6	54	10.1
quercus robur ⁹	0.70	8.9	4.5		9.7	10.0	52	11.0
ostrya virginiana	0.70	9.6	8.2	18.6	9.7	11.7	54	10.3
fagus silvatica	0.72	10.9	5.2		11.8	12.6	56	9.5
cornus florida	0.73	11.3	7.1	19.9	10.3	10.5	53	13.2
diospyros virginiana	0.78	9	6.3	15.3	12.2	13.9	63	17
dalbergia nigra	0.8	1	0.7			13.0
pyrus communis ¹²					6.5	10.5

Table 2: Some mechanical properties of woods and their substitutions

Reuse only undamaged old screws.

Wood screw nr.	tpi	Basic screw dia (mm)	dia. at base of thread (mm)	Drill size for shank	Drill size for thread	Withdrawal load per unit length (N/cm)		Max. lateral load (N)
						for hardwood	for softwood	hardwood	softwood
0	32	1.5	1.1	52	56	100	40	50	30
1	28	1.9	1.4	48	53	130	50	80	40
2	26	2.2	1.6	43	51	150	60	110	60
3	24	2.5	1.9	39	48	180	70	150	80
4	22	2.9	2.1	32	44	200	80	200	110
5	20	3.2	2.4	30	41	230	90	250	130
6	18	3.5	2.7	28	36	250	100	310	160
7	16	3.8	2.9	23	32	280	110	380	190
8	15	4.2	3.1	19	1/8	300	120	450	230
9	14	4.5	3.4	15	29	330	130	520	270
10	13	4.8	3.6	10	27	350	140	610	320
11	12	5.2	3.9	5	23	380	150	690	370
12	11	5.5	4.1	7/32	19	400	160	790	420
13		5.8	4.4	A	16	430	170	890	470
14	10	6.2	4.6	D	12	450	180	1000	520
16	9	6.8	5.1	I	4	500	200	1230	650
17		7.1	5.4	9/32	7/32	530	210	1360	710
18	8	7.5	5.6	19/64	1	550	220	1490	780
19		7.8	5.9	5/16	B	580	230	1630	850
20	8	8.1	6.1	P	D	600	240	1770	930
24	7	9.5	7.1	3/8	L	700	280	2410	1260

Table 3: Wood screw selection and use, adapted from Wood Handbook ¹³

Keyboard instrument technology developed alongside metal wire, although properties important to pitch remain within alloy types other details vary. ^{14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19} Cost and performance influence choice of wire for new installation the same way it did when timing in commerce and metallurgy determined the fortune of instrument makers.^{20, 21}

Tensile strength pick-up can be observed graphing against unit area.

Music is produced with smaller forces in light strung antique pianos and their hammer strike weights are lower than zones outlined by David Stanwood. ^{22, 23}

Table 1: Wood found in old pianos

a = North American, e = European
Common
secondary
special
obsolete application
p.154. Nalder, L. The Modern Piano. The Gresham Press. Old Woking, Surrey. 1927
Some emphasis is placed on the unsuitability of beech for musical instruments due to somewhat high shrinkage figures. This aspect is acknowledged by makers in the past ("difficult to dry", Turgan, 1865), but the changes are usually compared without indicating the long time required which might be interpreted as a useful property, and suggests that the broken glue joints often observed in backposts of turn of the century American uprights were due to their improper seasoning. ("Owing to the important property the Beech has of not absorbing water readily, it is much used on the Continent for making shoes, and soles for shoes, these being far superior to any mande of other descriptions of wood." Laslett, Thomas. Timber and Timber Trees. Macmillan & Co. London, 1894)

Table 2: Some mechanical properties of woods and their substitutions

unless noted all cited from Green, Winandy, Kretschmann. Wood Handbook--Chapter 4--Mechanical Properties of Wood. FPL-GTR-113. March 1999
The Swedish Hardwood Institute http://www.lovtrainstitutet.se/en/main.html
Selection Vosges http://www.selection-vosges.com/en/foret/fiche-sapin.htm
Rampart Guitars http://www.rampartguitars.com/sources%20of%20info.htm
p175-178. Agriculture Handbook nr. 72. USGPO, Washington, D.C. 1955

Chart 1: Tensile strength per unit area for specific wire diameters

Newbury, Brian. Investigation of the Metallurgy of 19th Century Piano Wire by Non-Destructive Analytical Techniques. Research Proposal. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015.
Cabre, Juan Mas. The Industrial Revolution and Piano Wire. Piano Technicians Journal, Kansas City, MO. July 2000.
Wire Comparison Chart. L.D. Peters & Sons, New Rochelle, NY. 2002
ASTM B227: Standard for Copper clad steel wire
Swenson, Edward. Chronologically arranged wire tests. http://www.mozartpiano.com/wiretest.html
Poletti, Paul. Scale Analysis. Purpose and Methodology. 1997 http://www.polettipiano.com/Media/scale.PDF
Hand Tools in History. Center for the Study of Early Tools, The Davistown Museum. Liberty, ME
http://www.davistownmuseum.org/TDMtoolHistory.htm
Goodrich, C. E. Notes on the Wire Industry, from "Story of Washburn and Moen"
http://www.assumption.edu/dept/history/95Fall97/Wire_Industry.html

Chart 3: Three new hammer strike weight zones

Hauser-Felberbaum, Annette E. and Ulrich Hauser. Über die Bedeutung des Hammers im Klavier- und Flügelbau. Systemische Musikwissenschaft, Festschrift Jobst Peter Fricke. Köln, 2003
http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/muwi/fricke/229hauser.pdf
Stanwood, David. Tools and Methods for Component Touch Weight Balancing. The Touch Designer's Tool Kit. Stanwood Piano Innovations Inc., Vineyard Haven, MA. 2000

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Table 1: Wood found in old pianos

Table 2: Some mechanical properties of woods and their substitutions

Table 3: Wood screw selection and use, adapted from Wood Handbook 13

Table 3: Wood screw selection and use, adapted from Wood Handbook ¹³