Button Orientation

[Mr Seen]

Hi All,

a first post, hope is ok.

I’m trying to restore some old concertinas. They are old and cheap manufacture, I’m doing it for fun and to learn… and if I can make them playable to some degree then I’m happy.

 

i just noticed that the orientation of the buttons on them is different. One will sit with a flat side on the knee and one will sit with a corner on the knee. Is this a usual option? I would have thought the former was the usual. 

 

Any idea of year of manufacture? They appear to be made of match wood. Bellows seem to be okay….

 

Cheers.
 

 

[Tradewinds Ted]

Flat toward the knee (corner to the palm of the hand) seems to be more common for better made instruments.

 

I've seen the corner on the knee (flat towards the palm of the hand) mostly in sales listings of cheaply made concertinas with accordion reeds.  In your case, both instruments seem to fit that category, and you did say these were cheaply made.

[Mr Seen]

3 minutes ago, Tradewinds Ted said:

Flat toward the knee (corner to the palm of the hand) seems to be more common for better made instruments.

 

I've seen the corner on the knee (flat towards the palm of the hand) mostly in sales listings of cheaply made concertinas with accordion reeds.  In your case, both instruments seem to fit that category, and you did say these were cheaply made.

They are made out of very cheap materials and not well finished inside. But they are hand made. Riveted reeds. And you can see how basic the mechanism is. German made I think, little bit of newspaper inside one.

cheers