What species of wood is this?

Not sure if this is the right spot but it IS species related, and technically much of this thing will in fact be firewood. just 100 yr old firewood. that used to sound pretty.

So I salvaged a very old piano today.

The white keys were ivory (99% sure, I'm no expert).

But not sure if the black keys were ebony.

Here are a few pics of a black key piece that I sanded the smooth finish off of.

Does this look like ebony? If not, any idea what it is? Curious if I should save these or not.


Regardless, can anyone use some of this? Guessing it would be inlay material, the keys of course are only but so big. Happy to donate it if someone can make use. Also happy to donate a few pieces of ivory if it can be used by someone here.

If the pics aren't good enough I can get some better shots in the daylight.

The color seems to be throughout the key, not just on the edges.

 

That looks mostly brown, whereas the ebony I've seen has been either entirely black or black with brown streaks, and the grain looks coarser than typical too... but then the brown streaks could easily be big enough to dominate a small piece of wood like this. It won't be easy to pin down without high-quality photos of a thin end-grain slice.

If the keys are real ivory then you've got a little treasure and also maybe a headache. It looks like it's ok to give it away, but selling it is legally sticky. If there was any identifying information on the piano, you might want to save it as evidence of its age.

 

Manufacturer name should be easy to find on the harp itself.

 

It is marked "Elgin Grand Cabinet New York".. but have not been able to find any historical records, just anecdotal evidence that it is probably ebony. but they could have certainly used a substitute for some reason.

I didn't think of saving the S/N marking (or even writing it down).


And it does look brown in the pic, its actually more black than anything. I have been told my camera picks up too much red, need to figure out how to fix that, often times colors come out a bit off. Black steel can look very rusty in low light pics.. It was not sunny at all today so I did not get another pic yet.

 

I really doubt those white keys are solid ivory. More than likely they have a thin layer of ivory laminated onto something really stable like Poplar. It'll be interesting to see what you find out.

 

The keys are definitely not solid ivory. Its a laminate.

pretty much exactly what you see here:
FAQs | Antique Piano

 

Here are some better pics I took in the sunlight so the flash didn't mess with the image.

One is a complete key cut in half lengthwise down the middle.

The other is the block from the earlier pic which has the sides ground off so the middle of the key is exposed.

Based on what I read ebony it seems like they should be heavier if they are ebony, but I don't know. they do sound like stone when clanking them together though.

 

I've got a couple ebony turning blanks I got from unclefess. They're heavily waxed, so I've never had a really close inspection of how the wood grain looks. But if it's got veneered ivory keys from real elephants, I'd be shocked if they skimped on the ebony.

Bring em by, I'll trade you for some ribs!

 

I got some here Shawn with YOUR name on them!