Bushing felt and other good stuff

[Johanna]

In discussions here about sources of bushing felt, it's often lamented that many places have minimum order quantities that are huge compared to the amount needed for concertina purposes.  So I thought I'd share this:

 

https://www.maharam.com/knoll-textiles/products/knoll-felt/colors/009-rouge

 

They'll send you a free 8-inch-square sample (up to four of them at a time, I think) of whatever you ask for.  It says this stuff is 100% wool and felted, and I can confirm that it's woven.  I just used it to rebush a button on my Aeola whose cross-hole bushing had fallen out.  I guess it's a little thicker than ideal - it took me several tries of packing it down with a toothpick before the lever arm would move freely, but it does seem to be working now.

 

In the past, I've used free samples of their other products to make baffles for some cheap-and-cheerful but loud concertinas.  It's a good source for small quantities of material.

[wschruba]

Thanks @Johanna, I've ordered a few samples to compare them to proper bushing felt that I keep in stock.

 

I would also add: piano technicians are a good source of bushing felt, and most rebuilders buy it in massive quantities (read: bolts).  You can frequently buy small quantities from ebay/amazon/individual resellers.

 

In the USA, Player Care sells 'extra thin' bushing cloth, which is ideal for concertina repair.

[wschruba]

"Extra-thin" piano bushing music cloth:

 

 

Maharam felt cloth:

 

 

One can see that the bushing cloth has a denser surface, and is, in fact, slightly denser (thicker).  The hand-feel is, likewise, more dense.  This is not surprising considering that it is made specifically for piano bushing requirements and is highly compacted for durability.

 

The felt cloth is slightly thinner/more pliable, as well as being through-dyed (piano bushing cloth uses white weaving so a technician can find/pull out thin strands of weaving to perfectly size it).  This would, in my estimation, make a better button-to-lever choice.  

 

Points to the felt cloth Johanna linked, for various different shades being available.  As far as I am aware, only one company in France sells piano bushing cloths of different colors, and they will not sell to the public.  Therefor, these would be a good choice of bushing cloth for end plates where scarlet is not desired.

 

The 100% wool felt is a great choice for bushing, as you can intentionally fuzz up the ends of the circle, and when installed/burnished, they will link together.  Synthetics typically do not, and show gaps where the ends are "joined".

Edited November 29 by wschruba

[Johanna]

Thanks for the comparison.  I'm surprised that the piano bushing cloth is so much thicker - the listings I've seen make it sound like it should be around 1 mm thick, or maybe a tiny bit more.  

[wschruba]

There are several different thicknesses of bushing cloth used in pianos, the thinnest being used in the action rail pivots, the thickest being used in the key bushings.  Unfortunately, the cloth used for action rail pivots--while thin--is not really suitable for anything on a concertina except maybe bushing the key pivots...it is typically sold in 3-6" lengths that are about 1.5" wide, and pre-formed on one end to be torn off and inserted through an action pivot.  While there is some real estate that is usable on those sets of felts, they are quite expensive for the (only 2ish square inches) of real estate you can actually use.

 

The thinnest material sold in normal sizes (as in, not cut to strange dimensions) is the type I show above.