So there she was. This once glorious, now derelict piano 
pushed dispassionately down a driveway and marooned kerbside.

As I drove down the street, I recognised it instantly from a
long long way off. I started thinking Paul McCartney and 
Stevie Wonder, and immediately began to sing their song in my head: 
Ebony and Ivory ......

She was way gone. The once eye catching veneer and inlay, never meant
to be exposed to the savageness of the open air, were destroyed by 
human carelessness and the indifference of mother nature. Curiously
the string frame and her strings were nowhere to be seen. 

But.. Was there any Ebony and or Ivory to be harvested from this
wreck?

I looked for a grain on the white keys, but as it was absent I 
discarded the material as being plastic of sorts. The black keys,
when I deliberately broke one, were coloured black through. This
finding gave me a small glimmer of hope. 

So I now have around 40 or so strips of black timber 
- perhaps Ebony - the size of piano keys.

How do I determine if they are Ebony? A couple of strikes in
both directions with one of my block planes produced not curly
shavings but fine crumbley "chips", and it is easy to see which 
way is against the grain.

Furthermore, what to do with these small pieces of lovely black 
timber?

Any thoughts fellow galoots?

PeterH in Perth

   
 
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