Leather Buttons 2025-01 (#94)

These leather buttons can be used on pianos, furniture, and wherever a vintage presentation is preferred. The process is guided by the shop owner Mr. Jude Reveley. The idea was initiated by piano technician Jonathan Tetzlaff following the Steinway piano tradition.

Material needed: thick felt, thin leather of preferred color, a thin dowel, felt glue, button jig, and a punch set. Our home made button jig has three sizes of holes bored: 1/2", 3/8", and 1/4". You can see there is one small hole in each button mold. Those are drilled all the way through the wood. After the buttons are made, they can be pushed out through the narrow holes from the other side.

The felt is punched slightly smaller than the button giving room for the leather wrap. The sizes of felt insert are shown on the second picture. The leather wraps are punched 3/8" larger than the button size in diameter.

Spread felt glue on the leather wrap, place the inner felt at the center, press the set into the mold with the thin dowel. Press around the button to make the fit tight. Waite for a couple of hours for the glue to dry.

When the glue is dried, poke the buttons out of the molds with a thin wire. Trim off the excess amount of wrap that is hanging over. Now you have vintage leather buttons.

Yes I got impatient with the razer blade and used scissors instead. The scissors work just fine and faster. The buttons look nice on the satin finish. Many thanks to Johnathan Tetzlaff for his knowledge on Steinway pianos and the historic design.