Keyboard: Details

Some further work on the keyboard:

Behind each sharp, I stained the top surface of the key lever black with an ebony stain for about a half-inch. This is a purely cosmetic detail often found on instruments with dark-coloured accidentals, and makes the sharp seem to blend into the back of the key. I did not stain any part of the key that is hidden behind the nameboard.

Each rack slot was rubbed with a very soft 6B graphite pencil to lubricate the slot and reduce any rubbing noises when the keys are played. The one minor defect in the rack guide design is that the slots run perpendicular to the grain: hence the rack pins bear on severed end grain fibers, which are a little rough. Fortunately the noise is usually covered by the music.