Hi All, Wendell Eaton, who died in the last year and received the
Golden Hammer Award in 1972 from the Piano Technicians Guild as well
as becoming a member of the Hall of Fame of that group etc. and being
it's President 1965 to 1967, told me some 40 years ago that in his
younger days the player technicians sealed pouches using inner tube
patch cement which can still be purchased.
I have used it in the past with a very thin coating and after it dries
you should dust it with power I use foot powder that has an anti-fungal
component. This rubber cement has never caused any problems for me and
it has never caused the pouches to be stiff and it tends to minimize
pouch shrinkage in dry conditions which I have found to be a problem
in some old players. It will not correct pouch dip once the pouch has
shrunk!
Wendell would have gotten his information from older techs in Baltimore
and some of these were former Knabe and Stieff employees. Among these
was my grandfather, George Oetken.
Allen Ford
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