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| The Piano Project |
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| A pianist without a piano is, erm... an unhappy pianist! After 3 years without I finally moved to a place suitable for housing an instrument. So all I needed to do was find one. Working on a tight budget I found that I was looking at poor quality instruments and/or those that needed work. I decided that the latter made a better investment, as well as a learning experience and a chance to feel 'a part' of my instrument. |
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| The Piano I found my piano on ebay, after spending several months on the lookout for a good candidate locally, I saw her. She is a pre-war model made by W.Hoffman of Berlin (see badge, left). I paid £20, the name was bought out by Bechstein for their middle range teaching pianos, and the seller believed that this was what they had, they didn't know what they were giving away! I consider this divine retribution for someone that abuses a beautiful instrument by using it as a coffee table/workbench/childrens activity centre, I have no concience about taking it off their hands ;). I had a professional piano mover collect her for me. |
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| So work commenced, it took about 9 days, two weekends of solid work and a few evenings in between of building up the polish. The first weekend was devoted to stripping and starting off the polish. The original polish was removed with a rather nasty paint-on/scrape-off stripper that probably stripped most of the inside of my lungs too! Then the surfaces were rubbed over with meths, sanded and lightly oiled with raw linseed. Dents and cracks were filled. A coat of sanding sealer was applied. The first layer of polish is thick and, as I was using black polish, opaque. This was applied and left 24 hours to harden. Subsequent layers were lighter. Ridges were smoothed off with extra fine wire wool, pits were filled with pumice dust from a pounce bag. Polish was applied to carved edges with a brush. When several layers (with a day to dry inbetween) had been applied, I added the last two layers with white (actually clear) polish, to give a deep lustre. When thoroughly hard the polish is buffed with a rubber lightly saturated with meths (spiriting off) to give a good shine. Those areas I did not refinish from scratch (the insides of the lids) were cleaned and spirited off too. A good layer of clear wax was applied over the finished polish for shine and protection. The second weekend was spent on the keys and finishing touches. The keys were numbered and removed. The old key tops and fronts were removed (with heat where necessary) and the new ones glued on (the new ones being tops with fronts attached). The tops were then filed to give a good fit with free movement. The new fronts were a little thicker (around 1.5 mm) than the old ones, so a little wood had to be taken off the piano to accomodate them. All felt trim and cushioning was replaced. Sconces were added, they are probably not quite the right style but they were the best I could get and they look good. All I need now is a set of strong casters for a heavy german piano (from a scrapped piano probably) and someone to lift the piano so I can apply them! |
| And boy, was she abused: There was so little shine left on her polish, I thought she has been painted matt, bare wood showed through in many places. The sconces and casters were missing. She had been left with both lids open (why, why, why?) and the workings were full of dust and cobwebs, there was even a coffee mug ring on the inside of the top lid. Small children had removed most of the key tops (well, that saved me a little work, I suppose). The good news was that she still played well (despite the remains of glue on the bare keys making it a rather sticky experience. After she had been allowed to settle I had a tuner look at her. He told me that the workings were so good, she looked like she had never been played (not bad on a 90 year old piano). It is quite sad that a lovely, well built instrument should stand unused for decades, but good for me I suppose. As far as function goes, all she needed was a little adjustment to the dampers, the rest was a long haul of cosmetic surgery! While investigating inside I found a price tag, as new, she had been sold in a Harrods-run shop in Manchester, for £32 Guineas! |