Bent keys on my 78' Rhodes

[ezeL]

Hi all,

so while trying to level my keys properly, I discovered that some of the wodden keys won't lay even on a flat surface and are slightly bent upwards. Does anybody have experience in bending them back? Maybe with Thonet bending?

Many thanks!
Jonas

[steste]

I have a 1977 stage and i have the same situation on some keys, wood is bent upwards and also right or left on some keys, few millimeters at the end.
I tried to bent the worst with hot steam and was it too risky i had fear to break the wood so i managed just adding removing shims now keys are levelled in a decent way.
But i think that you can reshape with hot temperature the keys as for any other wood, in lutherie is widely used so if you try let me know.
Maybe with an iron...

[ezeL]

Thanks for your reply! I want to also try it with an iron. How did you exactly do it?