Sources of Bushing Felt

[Mike Jones]

Can anyone  tell we where to obtain bushing felt?

GIven that Mark at Concertinas Spares is on holiday and thus unavailable, I need some more bushing felt to bush the buttons of a 35k Crane duet I'm rebuilding. Both ends had bad cracks and the LHS had separated across the key holes. There is enough wood left, now they are repaired, to re-drill and then bush the holes otherwise they would be too large for the bone buttons and I have run out of red woven bushing felt. My local haberdashery was not able to find anyone manufacturing anything suitable and although I can obtain some green woven baize (for snooker tables) it is rather too coarse. Red woven felt is not essential, black or green would also be acceptable. Any ideas anyone?

[Bill Crossland]

Fletcher Newman offer a good range of woven felts in various thicknesses: https://www.fletcher-newman.co.uk/

[Theo]

Charlie Marshall cgmmusical.co.uk sells it I think, and in smaller quantities than you can get from Fletcher and Newman.

[Alex West]

You can also get felt from Steve Dickinson - maybe slightly pricey per sq m but at least he sells it in small quantities suitable for a single concertina rather than a minimum order from a larger supplier and he knows eactly what's required in terms of thickness and composition

 

Alex West

[Mike Jones]

Thanks  to you all. I shall explore the possibilities.

Mike

[Chris Ghent]

Don’t use snooker table baize, it is inclined to become fuzzy. Any piano restoration supplies business will have good quality baize in several thicknesses. They call it bushing cloth.

[DDF]

If you need 1 mm these people supply small quantities.

https://www.windplus.net/supplies/woven_felt_sheet.html

[Mike Jones]

Thanks Chris,

I did have some table baize that I used to practice bushing some years ago while I was rebuilding an earlier acquisition and It did exactly as you said. I also had some 2mm blue card table baize that is a. too thick and b.  does not take to being forced into confined spaces as it pulls apart.

 

DDF : many thanks for the link, even cheaper than CGM. I had found a couple of piano baize suppliers but not that particular one.

 

Mike

[RogerT]

I’ve found that the thinnest piano felt I can get (less than 1mm) is too thick to line the bushing board. On my own Lachenal 32, which wasn’t bushed I reamed the holes. However, instead enlarging the button holes (on client's instruments) I prefer to find a suitable material. As it happens I’ve got some thinner material (black) that does the job. But I'm curious to know if anyone has other suggestions. The original felt is thinner than the thinnest piano felt I can get my hands on. In fact piano felt is often a bit thick for button lever bushes too, and if the button doesn’t gimbal a little bit on the lever it easily sticks in the button hole.

[alex_holden]

Hainsworth Doeskin works well (first suggested to me by @Sprunghub).

[Chris Ghent]

How thick is that Alex?

[alex_holden]

5 minutes ago, Chris Ghent said:

How thick is that Alex?

 

I thought it was less, but I just measured a piece and it's 1mm.

[RogerT]

…so anyway, piano bushing felt doesn’t seem to be the right material because it’s often too thick either to bush the upright buttons or to line the bushing plate without reaming the holes. 

[Theo]

Roger have you tried the suppliers mentioned earlier in this discussion?  Fletcher & Newman, Steve Dickinson?

[RogerT]

Hi Theo, I got my supply from Fletchers … I wasn’t sure which of the two thinnest felts were appropriate so ordered the thinnest two..😀 but still they aren’t thin enough, and the stuff I got from Concertina Spares is the same stuff.  The first time I encountered this problem I just thought it was a fluke, but it isn’t. So I've Obvs got the wrong stuff… the thinnest bushing cloth on Fletcher is 0.85mm

Edited November 10, 2022 by RogerT

[Theo]

I use the .85mm felt and usually it’s fine.  Are you ensuring all traces of old adhesive are cleaned out?  Are you using a tool to bed in the felt after fitting? 

[RogerT]

Hi, yes to both. But I’m pretty sure the old bushing material used was thinner than 0.85mm..esp having checked the stuff I’ve recovered. 

[Rod Pearce]

Mike

 

I bought this bushing felt, sold by the Piano Accessory Shop,  I went for the 0.85mm thickness.

 

https://www.pianoaccessoryshop.co.uk/product/bushing-cloth-strips-0-85mm-1-8mm-for-flange-keys/

 

Currently priced on their website for £15.95 – £17.95

Description

Strip of Red Bushing Cloth for  for flanges and key bushing in grand and upright pianos

• Colour:  Red
• Size of set:  75 mm X 915 mm

Thickness and Application:

• 0.8mm – Flange
• 1.00mm – Flange
• 1.3mm – Flange/ Key
• 1.5mm – Key
• 1.8mm – Key

Rod