The post and key mechanism for the Chadash clarinet contains 40 percent more pure copper than commercially made instruments. The finish is platinum silver, which is immune to acid corrosion. The metal is composed of German nickel silver, which is a combination of 40% Nickel, 35% Copper, 20% Zinc, and 5% Lead. This combination is the traditional raw material for clarinet key making since t machines well, maintains shaping integrity, and is pleasing to the touch when played.
The part of the key that connects the cup to the hinge and or touch-piece is electro-eroded on a specialty EDM machine where the dimensions are controlled to precision having been programmed on a computer.
Those and the other components of a key (being the touch piece, hinge, key cup, spring hook are fitted together on the key soldering jig. Chadash clarinet uses a different jig combination for each one of the different keys on the clarinet in order to allow for the different shapes and sizes of each hole. Once all those parts are affixed in their correct order by soldering with silver, they are ready for silver platinum plating, and/or cleaning and polishing.
This is a key soldering gig which holds the various parts of a key in the correct positions and indexing ready to be silver soldered.
Accessories for the key soldering gig custom made to fit all the keys on the clarinet.