Jake Middleton-Metcalfe
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Posts posted by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe
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Yes, they did fund some of my training with Steve Dickinson. I was amazed really, they are the only organisation which I have known to help a concertina maker recently.
The only other organisation I reached out to was "The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851" on the grounds that C.Wheatstone and co was an exhibitor in the original exhibition, but honestly that was always a bit of a tenuous idea of mine, it was my wife who pointed out the HCA were a better bet. Thank you Chloe.
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For that amount of money in the UK my recommendation is for an accordion reeds concertina by Marcus Music, though their standard model is actually about £2000 now, alternatively A.c norman and Co is similar but I don't know the price.
Basically if you can stretch to £2000 you can get a very well made modern hybrid from either of the makers I mention above. Compared to those Concertinas, speaking as a musician: in the price range you mention a vintage concertina is going to play quite disappointingly by comparison to a Marcus or norman.
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That's quite interesting, it sounds like a fun experience.
It's worth remembering that the instrument will probably be quite representative of Italian made Concertinas in general and as such probably this should be viewed as a fun experience rather than a cheap way to get an excellent instrument if you get my drift.
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2 hours ago, Chris Ghent said:
While the inboard nature of the reeds probably accounts for the muffled sound it is also possible the chamber is not big enough. Novelty noises did not have much of a chamber and creating one big enough for reeds may have been tricky. Easily assessed by looking. I imagine Colin took this into account.
Yeah I agree the inboard reeds always sound a bit different.
It's quite interesting to consider that the people in that Jeffries workshop would have known something about flaring the air holes like that and known what the result would have been. It's just one of those bits of information that hasn't really been passed on.
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It is really hard to tell what the effect of opening up/counter boring/flaring the underside of the hole would be without doing an experiment. What thread did you see about that, I must have missed it? Could you post a link? I would be very interested to read it.
I never experimented with this but I have seen it done on some Jeffries concertinas. The person who is most likely to have experimented with this is probably Colin Dipper. I only make that as a guess as he has tried many things over the years.
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1 hour ago, Peter Smith said:
Many thanks, Jake.
I didn't realise the reed frames required so much work.
The reed sounds similar to other reeds - no noticeable difference in tone, response or how it plays.
I was just curious, as I had never seen a reed frame like this before - so thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments.
Peter
I'm curious too. And always eager to lean new things, much knowledge has been lost over the years on the subject of concertina reeds sadly.
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Sorry for the delay in responding.
Those are the dimensions I would have expected for a lachenal A5 reed. Sorry I had hoped to give a decent conclusion but...
I have never seen someone do this as a way to improve performance of a reed, though as Ttonon says it could have been done to improve performance, In a way I have never seen before.
Basically the way these reed frames were made is: using a press tool and fairly heavy duty press (5 or more ton) 1 the lozenge shape is stamped out with a press tool 2 the slot is stamped out then 3 the form tool squashed the reed frame so the inside slot is angled as well as the outside of the frames 4 a draft tool is forced through to clean up the slot by widening it to final size and then if we are lucky hand filing on the slot.. it's usually something like that anyway. What with all the pressing something could have got in the press and made an indentation there by accident.
Then again maybe it was known as one of those tricks of the trade by some on the shop floor "oh if you punch a bit ere mate, it sounds better, the boss said so".
Were any other reeds in the instrument given the same treatment? Or does it particularly sound different or perform better/play faster than the other reeds? That might give some indication.
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I would have thought that is all you really need to do, I would only really bother about the cleaning once a year personally but it's up to you. If the cloth is sort of only just barely damp it should not do any harm.
I think that sort of lacquer is very long lived just be careful of knocking it on things and it helps to have finger nails cut short so they don't slowly wear away the lacquer just above the buttons.
This picture shows what I mean by fingernail wear around buttons.
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On 2/1/2026 at 9:17 PM, gcoover said:
A big caveat - make sure you know how they strip off the old plating.
Years ago, I took my 50-button Jeffries Duet to a plating company in Houston, Texas, where I lived at the time, and they must have used some sort of wheeled abrasive as there are now little "flare" lines extending from every buttonhole and throughout the fretwork. And the engraved label text has almost vanished.
I was horrified and should have left well enough alone.
Foreword to today, although it is still a fabulous-sounding instrument, the new plating is now worn and pitted and looks like crap.
Some people's fingers (apparently mine) interact with nickel silver, so if that's the case with you, then replating will only be a temporary solution. I really wish there was a way to re-plate with stainless steel!
Gary
Yeah I have heard of this happening a few times to makers over the years. Basically once it is stripped it needs re finishing which is usually done with a high speed polishing wheel and abrasive compound. That's how I do it and how everyone I know does it but the problem is a lot of these metal finishing businesses will be used to polishing car bumpers/motorcycle fenders ect and if they apply that heavy handed approach to concertina ends it can be disastrous. Really it's someone with jewellery making skills who is more likely to be able to polish a concertina end well. Or a concertina maker but in any case yeah it's best not to leave it to the electroplating/metal finishing company to do the polishing. I always am very specific with the place in Northampton I use "do not carry out polishing on any of these parts" written on the box.
Another maker told me he kept an end which the fretwork was entirely polished to nothing in places, and kept it sort of as a warning.
Sorry to hear this happened to your instrument.
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11 hours ago, Bill Crossland said:
When I have had new ends made I use 22 SWG nickel silver Grade NS 103 from here:https://www.johnkeatleymetals.com/shop/nickel-silver/nickel-silver-sheet-plate/
After laser cutting, they have been cleaned, polished and lacquered by a local trombone maker. My own metal ended Wheatstone (which I believe is chromed plated) was done in the same way over 20 years ago, and they are still in mint condition.
Lacquered. That is probably what has kept it good. I have honestly never tried that on a concertina though I did make a brass plate with some engraved lettering on it for someone's house a few years ago and I did lacquer that ... I will have a close look at it next time I go past.
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14 minutes ago, Clive Thorne said:
I always assumed that a nickel silver end would not need plating, just polishing. Have I missed something?
If it's solid nickel silver that has no plating and it's high enough nickel content then that is correct - though a lot of old instruments have nickel silver ends which have nickel plating over the top of that because the base metal nickel silver tarnished and oxidises in a bad way I believe due to the nickel content not being high enough.
Nickel silver with a high enough nickel content does not seem to be available today - the highest I ever found was 18% nickel and it was not enough, plating still required. I'm not sure when it stopped being available historically.
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I have never actually re-done an end like this but from the electroplating company I use and the general advice from the industry:
If the base metal is brass an acid which is aggressive to nickel is used to strip off the nickel plating, then a metal finisher must re polish the metal and then the end is re-plated.
If the base metal is nickel silver using the acid might be a bad idea. (My own guess)
If anyone has actually done this I would love to know the results.
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I can tell you the answer (or at least an educated guess) if you give the following information:
1: what is the length of the reed tongue
2: what is the length of the reed frame
Sometimes there are intentional interesting design features and sometimes ... The worker was heavy handed with the letter punch - with the above information I should be able to tell you which it is.
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4 hours ago, Katie Mendives said:
Hey! Charles Jeffries was my great great grandfather! 🎶 ❤️
Has anyone ever contacted you asking about family history? A number of people have tried to research Charles Jeffries over the years.
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On 1/7/2026 at 4:41 PM, Geoffrey Crabb said:
New Years Greetings to all.
The attachment may be of interest, it's a bit 'busy' I'm afraid.
40 & 41 Button CG Anglo Crabb Typical.doc 110 kB · 33 downloads
Geioff
41 keys! Very nice. I recently did one of those and the extra button was in the exact same place! How original I thought I was - ah well if it's a good idea someone is bound to have had it before.
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I just used 2mm brass wire - you can usually get it from model making shops for small quantities. A pair of pliers and some patience. Be prepared to mess a few up before you get it exactly the right size but the wire is cheap.
I usually first bend the first 90 to form the bit that goes under the hand rest, then put the hand strap where it will be and use a Sharpie to mark the point of the next bend on the wire - that defines how much wiggle room the bracket will have once the strap is in there. Keep doing this, mark up, bend , mark up, bend until done. You might need two pairs of pliers for some of it. To be honest it's deceptively hard to get right.
If it does not fit in the little notch on the underside of the hand rest (if the original wire was thinner) you could either find thinner wire or otherwise file out that little notch a bit until the wire fits. The key thing is as you mentioned it's got to be the right size for the strap, so it's not too loose not too tight. Tricky.
I hope this helps
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21 hours ago, Richard Mellish said:
I didn't realise you were making any 40-key instruments. That one looks gorgeous, and no doubt sounds gorgeous too. I would love one, but arguably have too many already and, if you did make one for me, it would compete with at least a few of the others for playing time. So just carry on and make them for other players.
Yes, 40 and actually 41 button Anglos are possible for me these days. English concertinas are still in the pipeline.
Enjoy the music you are playing, whatever you are playing it on that's the main thing.
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9 hours ago, Luke Hillman said:
As the proud owner of the pictured 40-button instrument, I can confirm—it's even more gorgeous in person, and sounds wonderful. Well worth the wait!
I am glad you enjoy it, yes that one pictured is yours. I was particularly fond of that one.
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Some of you might have noticed that I stopped accepting new orders a while ago, this was because my waiting list got to a point of 3+ years which is beyond my event horizon somewhat.
What will happen now is the existing orders will be fulfilled until my order book is empty and then I will simply make instruments then advertise them for sale on my website and sell them on a first come first served basis, more or less. Potentially some commissions will be taken but probably only as much work as can be done in 6-8 months. It will probably be a couple of years before I get to this stage as I intend to fulfil every order on my list.
If anyone wants to be kept updated on this process and when things will start becoming available I am making a mailing list - if you want to be added to the list just send me an email - my details are here: https://wolvertonconcertinas.com/contact/
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On 11/28/2025 at 8:36 AM, davidevr said:
I am also super curious about the distance between a Suttner and a Eiru. I got the latter because I was upgrading from a Clare and the tradeoff program made a lot of sense. Also, ICC made my Eiru in 2 months, a Suttner would have taken years.
In any case, the Eiru feels super snappy: I am not the fastest player but the instruments feels very responsive to me: cuts, rolls and even those "draw the bellow slightly and then cut" or similar embellishments, they sound crisp.
Buy of course I never laid my hands on a Suttner, hence the curiosity 🙂My understanding is Suttner is no longer open for business, though of course they are likely to appear on the 2nd hand market now and then.
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I usually say "you know those small hexagonal accordions? But they are actually called concertinas" it seems to get people to understand usually.
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I suppose if every house was heated by fire in the past then this would have been very relevant.
I saw an Aeola a while ago that had actually been accidentally thrown on a fire! Maybe they misread the label.
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21 hours ago, Nigel Champion said:
The maker is shown as W (William) Jeffries, 38 Craven Park. There's some discussion here:
Thank you Nigel for the link to that thread, which has a nice link to the article about the Jeffries family which I will read.
I was asking myself "why did I miss this interesting thread?" and then realised oh wait... it must have been because it is from 2006 when I was 16 and did not know what a concertina was!
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That's an interesting video - one certainly gets a feel for the history of the object. Its interesting how it says Jeffries on the outside but on the inside it says "Wheatstone" but the Wheatstone is crudely scraped out but not entirely, also it has Jeffries button layout but radial reed pans and a very Wheatstone looking action.
AND THEN! Small screw holes on the inside corners of the action box under the metal end, as if the end was originally screwed down but there are no screw holes on the metal ends.... What is going on here? Did Wheatstone try to copy a Jeffries? Did someone try to make a Wheatstone look like a Jeffries?
Cant help it, the mystery is interesting. There is sometimes a question of authorship with old instruments but this one has a very chequered history. Mostly irrelevant compared to "can I play good music with this?"
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Harry Scurfield
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted · Edited by Jake Middleton-Metcalfe
I saw him a couple of weeks ago he is very much alive. Sorry to say I have not got his contact details though.