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RE: Leather Pads or Fishskin?

Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-02-24 09:19

Leather pads are usually unsuitable to overflow the EDGES of the key cup, so if the cups are not large enough, or not positioned concentrically enough, reliable seating can be a problem. Good quality bladder pads are usually 'stepped' - the felt is larger than the cardboard (which fits the key cup) - and the edge of the face is more defined (i.e. smaller radius)

Leather beds in deeply and is likely to have a large seating surface, possibly making more slap noise as they close when they harden with age.

Leather is porous. Leather is more inclined to leak slightly.

Leather is much more accommodating of really poor pad installation and seating, and also chipped tone hole areas.

The story goes that a local Peter Eaton owner enquired of Peter Eaton why they used leather pads. The answer was that they always had done. Aint that British!

RonB: Decades ago I asked a local goldbeaters skin producer what it was made from and they said the buoyancy bladder from some fish.

When I reported this on the repairers' forum the notion was soundly rubbished. I could produce no evidence, nor find any. I researched the web extensively but could find only references to the source being part of the gut lining of some farm animals. So I would be most interested if you know more about the fish source. It seems that the current source is rather likely to be the same as (natural) sausage skin.

It doesn't appear scaly to me, and I find it hard to believe it received the names 'fish skin' and 'bladder' wihout having a source different from animal digestive tract, at least in the past.

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Leather Pads or Fishskin? new

Mike

2002-02-23 19:26