A regular meeting of the Long Island Nassau Chapter, PTG was held on October 9, 2012, at Frank and Camille's Keyboard Center, 229B Glen Cove Road, Carle Place, N.Y. Ten chapter members and two guests attended.

President Slavin called the meeting to order at 6:50 PM.

Minutes for the September 11, 2012 meeting were accepted.

The treasurer’s report was accepted as read.

President Slavin announced that the winter holiday dinner will be held on Tuesday, December 4. The cost of the dinner is expected to cost six to eight dollars less than the June dinner at Bistro Cintron. The dinner committee needs to know in advance, how many people will be attending.

The business meeting concluded at 6:53 P.M. Shawn Hoar was the guest speaker for the evening. An Associate Member of the Connecticut Chapter, PTG, Shawn is a well-known piano rebuilder and has taught classes at the PTG Convention and Technical Institute. The class title was: “Woods of the Piano”.

Mr. Hoar is an avid woodworker and showed us some of his wood-turning projects. He also recommended reading the following books: Understanding Wood by R. Bruce Hoadley and A Treatise on the Art of Pianoforte Construction by Samuel Wolfenden. During his presentation, Mr. Hoar discussed the various parts of the piano and the different woods used in their construction. Types of wood mentioned included:

• Maple is used in the manufacture of hammer moldings, grand piano rims, hammershanks, action parts, bridges, and key frames.
• Old upright hammershanks were made from cedar.
• Hornbeam is also used in the production of action parts.
• Piano keys are made from spruce, sugar pine, or basswood.
• Soundboards are made from Sitka spruce, Austrian spruce, or Eastern spruce.
• Rosewood is used for knuckle cores.
• Soundboard ribs can be made from sugar-pine or spruce.
• Piano rims can be made from maple, birch, and mahogany.
• Key-buttons are made from basswood, beech, or maple.
• The belly-rail can be made from maple, spruce, or beech.

Also discussed were the various ways in which a log is cut to get flat-sawn or quarter-sawn boards.

The meeting adjourned at 8:18P.M.