There's Gold In Them Concertinas!

[accordionmagic]

 

Nearly finished,

[Dana Johnson]

Looked at the blowup, Are those plated, or drawn glod sheet? but seriously, I just love the little cut out details near the rivets on the levers! Reminds me of the best kind of metal work. You'll need clear saphire ends to show off the innards. Lovely work!

Dana

[ragtimer]

 

Nearly finished,

Is everything really gold plated? Wow, that's beautiful. It will look as good 200 years from now!

 

You will hate to put the end plates on. Can you make them of plexiglas, or even real glass?

(Be careful what sort of pubs you take it into!)

[Henrik Müller]

 

Nearly finished,

Very, very cool photo. Variation on Dana's question: are the cap drawn steel or brass and then gold plated? Or stolen from pencils (people have been known to do that ) and then gold plated?

I am a primitive man - I just want the caps...

/Henrik

[accordionmagic]

Hello all,

 

Thank you for your comments, the arms and pivots are made from brass sheet, these are gold plated after forming and polishing, the rivets are also plated.

 

The button tops are turned from brass and drilled out to fit the top of the turned wooden part which is only slightly smaller in diameter. The tops are then rounded, polished and gold plated.

 

Next time I may even do the springs (phospher bronze)

All very time consuming but worth it I think.

 

The ends are rosewood on this model with gold plated end bolts and detail.

 

More pictures to follow.

 

Cheers

[Chris Ghent]

The levers are stunning, what is the provenance of this concertina..?

 

Chris

[accordionmagic]

The levers are stunning, what is the provenance of this concertina..?

 

Chris

 

This is a Jeffries copy made entirely from scratch by myself. The rosewood ends have my own fretwork design but otherwise it is very similar, particularly the reed pans.

It's in the final finishing stage now and will be finished by the end of the week.

 

It has been my desire to produce a fine instrument and as such I believe the insides should reflect the same level of quality as the outside even if it's hidden from view! No expense has been spared.

 

Hopefully the first of many.

 

Roy

[Dana Johnson]

One note for you button plating enthusiasts, Make it thick enough. It is soft and does wear off with lots of playing A little bit more than enough and it'll last a lifetime.

Dana

[Jack Bradshaw]

One note for you button plating enthusiasts, Make it thick enough. It is soft and does wear off with lots of playing A little bit more than enough and it'll last a lifetime.

Dana

 

Hard to make it thick the way I do it...sputtering....on the other hand I can sputter a layer of glass over the gold to give it wear resistance........these pictures are giving me all kinds of inspiration !

[accordionmagic]

Hi folks,

 

Well finally here it is, my Jeffries based concertina with the gold plated bits and bobs.

This one is now the property of Chris Algar, I will be making more, exclusively for sale by Chris. Metal ended next.

 

 

Yes, those are Lachenal reeds but the Jeffries style construction does indeed seem to bring them to life.

The construction is traditional where possible, kiln dried quarter sawn sycamore is used for the reed pans, action board/sound board and bellows frames with Rosewood veneered Mahogany everywhere else.

The bellows are constructed from individual card pieces with a coloured paper top layer as shown, muslin hinges inside and under the morocco grained sheepskin. The leather is hand cut and skived from the same hide.

All metal parts except for the springs are gold electroplated, this looks good and stops the rot. The end bolts are gold plated stainless steel.

 

Hope you like it