As your piano tuner Wilmington DE, I am occasionally asked what types of wood are used in the construction of a piano. This is the fourth of four articles on the subject. As we said in our previous three articles, there are many kinds of wood that are used in a piano, depending on the function of each particular structure. If you have not yet read our previous three piano tuner blog articles, this would be a good time to read them, so that this article will be more easily understood.
Our first article in this series discussed the types of wood in the case of a piano. The second article discussed the types of wood in a piano soundboard. The third article elaborated on the construction of a soundboard.
This article will talk about the types of wood that are used in the mechanical part of the piano. The piano action is the portion from the piano keys to the piano hammers. The types of wood used in a piano action are chosen for the particular function of each. For example, the keys need to be as light in weight as possible, so that they will be quickly responsive to the pianist’s touch, and will return to rest position quickly for rapid repetition. For that reason, the major portion of the keys is pine. There are stresses on keys, however, so maple, a hardwood is used in buttons at the pivot point of the keys, so that they are less likely to break with the stresses on them. Most of the other structures in an action are made of maple, so they will withstand the stresses placed on them. This is especially true of the hammer shanks and hammer cores. Sometimes hammer cores are made of mahogany, instead of maple, but the shanks are always maple.
If you have any questions about pianos, please let us know. Kenneth Keith Piano Services is your professional Wilmington DE piano tuning technician. We also provide piano tuning services Philadelphia PA, Eastern Shore MD and Southern NJ.
