I am building a handle for a concertina. Just as I am getting it finished, I have thought that I should have done it altogether differently. Ah, that's life!
Man has risen from the apes because he can hold things with his hands, that involves the fingers, but with a concertina that is a problem because you want the fingers for pushing the buttons.
Some players use straps across the back of their hands, but I find that unsatisfactory.
So I making a "thing" which will lie in the groove at the backside of the gap between the thumb and the bony plate which makes up the hand. That way the palm of the hand can rest on the crown of the handle and the hand can be held onto it by gripping round the "thing" to pull the palm back onto the crown of the handle. Concertinas have to be played on both the push and the pull, but the forces are not very great.
So what I want is a material which is reasonably pliable at not too high a temperature, say 80°C, though that's negotiable. The hand can take that for a few seconds while trying it out. Then the "thing" can pushed into shape and tried again. The pliable material can be covered with flexible material, say rubber, so that even if the pliable material is sticky, it won't stick to the hands. The pliable material is heated by embedded electrical wires, low voltage from something like a battery charger. When the material cools, it must stiff enough. Body temperature is 38°C but I can't see a handle getting hotter than
30°C in British conditions. It doesn't matter if the pliable portion bends slowly, it can always be heated up again and re-shaped. In fact the ability to re-shape would be an advantage.Any suggestions?
Michael Bell