Chapter 6 - Finishing the Keyboard

Head/Tail Joint

Very little on a Flemish or French harpsichord is left undecorated – this includes the keytops. In Chapter 5 we installed the heads, tails, and bone sharp caps. In this chapter, we’ll shape and decorate the heads. This work requires a tremendous amount of hand work and is the one of the reasons these keyboards cannot be produced in a factory. Here we go!

The first step is to address the head to tail joint. Strange as it sounds, we’re not going to try to hide this joint. Instead we’re going to exaggerate it by deepening the joint with an X-Acto knife. Do this on all of the natural keys. The reason will become obvious very soon.