Restoration of a Knabe Victorian Grand and its transformation to a Pianomation player
piano for Don Hollingshead
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1) Here is a photo of all the boards except for the music
desk being displayed before work began.
2) Another angle before work began. The overall condition of this piano was so
bad that I wanted a good amount of documentation of the before condition. The
finished product will be so dramatically better than the original that it warrants a few
extra pictures to help point out the differences.
3) A pre-start close-up of the keyboard.
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4) One more picture from the other side to show up some more
of the damage we have to work with during the process.
5) The first job, before anything could be taken apart was to glue the fall board
back together. In order to get it right in terms of its overall dimensions, I needed
the piano as closely as intact as I could get it. This enabled me to determine that
my corrections would fit properly. If I waited to do this repair after the piano was
totally apart, I would not necessarily have gotten as accurate a finished fit.
6) The process for restoring this broken fall board was complex. The way in
which the board broke left the two mating sides uneven. Also, the fibers of the wood
tore as the wood severed. This made it impossible to reapproximate the boards and
just glue them back together. The joint would not have been strong. Therefore,
I went through a series of steps. First was to develop jigs which enable me to run
each half of the board through the table saw in such a way as to keep the front portion
square to the cutting blade. After the two halves were dressed in this fashion, a
new piece of poplar was cut to a dimension which restored the overall height of the board
to its original. The front surface of the filler board was made to be perfectly
level with the front veneer but the back side was left with extra wood. This wood
will have to be hand carved to achieve a match to the original rounded profile. In
this photo, you see the index sticks I had attached to the face to line up the three
boards as well as to index them so they would be aligned laterally as well. Once I
had a good alignment, the halves of the fall board were taken away from the new board and
the opposite half of the original board. With the one half and the insert attached,
13 holes were drilled down through the new insert down into the original board. Then
hardwood dowels were fitted to these holes. Then the process was reversed so that
dowels could also be run into the other half without interfering with all the alignments.
At the time that this was being done, it was the thought of the owner to have the
piano finished in black. If so, I could just check that my glue joint is very stable
and then do some sanding and filling and then lacquer over this with a seamless result.
The worst would be that I would have to lay in a little cross grain veneer of an
inexpensive variety which is good for holding lacquer; probably mahogany. If there
is any indication that the joint could flex enough to cause the lacquer to later develop a
line in the surface due to flexion, the inlay of veneer would prevent this. If we
have to do this, it will mean trimming a trench down just below the surface of the
existing veneer in order to provide a level result when the new veneer is glued into
place. However, the current thought is to restore the piano to its original Rosewood
glory. This will best be accomplished by faking the Rosewood grain over the poplar
insert in order to create a seamless appearance. The only other option would be to
totally reveneer the fall board (a difficult and expensive proposition.)
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7) Here, you see the repaired fall board being glued back
together. The condition of this piano was such that it was so filthy it was
impossible to tell what it was veneered in. I had jumped to the conclusion that it
was mahogany which was the most commonly used wood of that time. As I started to
work with the piano, it became obvious that the instrument is veneered in a rare type of
Rosewood. The customer chose to skip doing the piano in black and go the extra mile
to restore the Rosewood to all its glory. This fall board will probably get a faux
grain technique over the insert. A Rosewood strip laid over this repair would look
very obvious. It will be better to trace out the grain lines in the original veneer
and carry them over the new wood in such a way as to trick the eye into thinking it is all
one piece of Rosewood. Provided I'm happy with the joint when it comes out of the
clamps, this is the path I will take. If needed, I will clean all the old Rosewood
off the piece and totally reveneer it but this would take a great deal of time and should
be avoided if possible due the the fact that the new applications of Rosewood should be
done sparingly. The trees that will supply us with the veneer we need are becoming
extinct and therefore should be called upon to provide us with the minimum amount of wood
to produce a great job.
8) The keyboard after it was removed from the piano. Moisture has caused all
the old ivory to fall off already. The celluloid fronts are still in place but are
dingy and the glue joints are suspect so they will have to be replaced as well.
9) The Rosewood veneer on the cheek blocks was totally trashed. Therefore, the
old veneer was completely cleaned off in preparation for new. Because so much damage
needs to be repaired, I'm taking the path of pulling the boards off the piano one at a
time and evaluating their condition. Any structural or cosmetic work which needs
done to the wood is mostly being done right then before the board is set aside and another
board dealt with. This will ensure that anything that has to go to the stripper will
have solid glue joints before it hits any stripping solutions.
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10) Happily the upright portion of the music desk with its
beautiful gingerbread is in fine shape. However, the slider of the desk was broken
in two on one side. This break is being reglued in this photo. The veneer will
probably be replaced although that has yet to be decided. If I can save the veneer
in such a way that the glue joint is perfect with no chance of coming loose later or
causing problems with the lacquer, I'd like to try to save it. The opposite side is
having similar problems. The veneer is actually in good shape but the core wood
beneath has lost all its glue joints which held the pieces of it together. All that
is holding it in one piece is the veneer. This will probably necessitate at least
the bottom layer of veneer coming off to gain access to the failed joints for repair
before this board can go to the stripper. Another possibility I will investigate
with this board is to find a way to run blind dowels through the heart of it in order to
strengthen the failed glue joints without harming the Rosewood veneer.
11) The strings have now been removed from the piano. Plate heights have been
recorded as have the original scale for the strings. This scale is far from meeting
quality modern standards and the string lengths as dictated by the bridges is also open to
debate. I will make corrections to any flaws in these two before I make the new
bridges. Also, the pin block has been indexed using holes drilled into it through
the plate. This will be used later to get the new pin block properly aligned.
12) The tuning pins are now out. These were the most heavily rusted tuning
pins I've ever seen. They left piles of rust laying on the surface of the plate
during extraction. In fact, the damper wires were also so badly corroded that I had
to drive the damper levers off of them in order to get them out. Normally we reuse
both the damper heads, wires and underlevers since they see very little stress during use.
However, we already have planned to replace the damper underlevers on this piano.
In addition, I have decided to replace the damper wires since the originals were so
badly corroded. I can't foresee any way to get them cleaned up as well as they need
to be in order to truly be right. This will add about an entire day's labor to the
job since the old wires will be difficult to remove from the wooden damper heads without
damaging the heads and the new wires will have to be individually custom bent to match the
originals. I think that the fate that this piano has suffered has largely been at
the hands of neglect brought about after it became too decrepit to play. Once it was
that old, people stopped caring for it and starting sticking it in their garages for
storage. It is this "post mortum" abuse which did more damage to the piano
than the original wear and tear which caused it to become out of favor in the first place.
If only all the past owners had truly known what a jewel they had, they might have
treated it better and we might have had a lid that could be saved and a fall board which
wasn't broken in two, and damper wires which weren't so badly corroded they had welded
themselves to their set screws, etc.
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13) The plate screws are now out and placed in a piece of
cardboard to keep their original locations in order. Normally, this is only needed
when a piano is to be restrung with the original pin block. It is always best to put
the screws back into the same holes when you're keeping the block. However, I like
to use this despite the fact that I always replace the pin blocks because it helps me keep
the screws together and helps me to make sure I don't forget what goes where with screws
that are of different lengths. It also helps me keep the nose bolts in order.
Finally, one of the plate bolts broke entirely. It is broken deep below the
surface. Having it's other half stored in this way helps me to remember where I have
to go to get out that unwanted broken piece of metal which will be in the way of my
reassembly operation.
14) The plate is now out. This is a photo of the plate from the back.
15) Another photo of the removed plate from the front. I have it displayed in
the shop in this way for the purposes of a consult. I redo a large number of plates.
However, I seldom run into plates whose original finishes have failed so miserably.
I'm hiring a professional automobile painter to come in and help me to analyze the
condition of the bond between the feathering agent and the top coats of guilding. If
we can determine between us that the bond of the feathering agent to the metal is good, I
will heavily sand all the old gold off and degloss the feathering agent along with
smoothing out and repriming any damaged areas. Then I'll reguild the plate and top
coat it as usual. If the consultant strongly feels that the feathering agent is not
to be trusted, this plate will have to be taken down to bare metal and refeathered before
it can be guilded. That will be a huge undertaking; one I hope to avoid.
However, if it must be done to ensure a stable paint job, I won't shirk the responsibility
to get it done right.
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16) The piano with the plate out. The clean spot in
the middle of the board is a result of a wet spot. One of the nose bolts had welded
itself into the strut beneath because of rust. I was in fear that I would break it
before it would turn. Therefore, I wet the sound board and bridges to avoid the
chance of setting them on fire and heated the bolt with a torch to enable it to let go
enough that I could force it out.
17) Here, I'm indexing the pin block and the sound board so that I can orient the
new parts exactly where they belong later.
18) Drilling out the plate support dowels so that they won't interfere with
extracting the sound board. When I reassemble the piano, I will probably replace
these dowels with screws corresponding to access holes drilled into the plate. These
screws will make it possible to make changes to the down bearing on the bridges at any
time during the final voicing of the piano as well as any time in the future if a change
to the overall tone is desired.
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19) Pulling the bridge pins out before removing the sound
board is always a good idea. These pins can be very hard on your knuckles when your
working with the board. Better to get them out now before I start to work with the
board out of the piano. They are harder to pull outside the piano and they also tear
up my work benches. Since these bridges are not to be reused, taking out the pins
could probably be skipped. However, I feel I can get a better pattern off the
original bridges if I have the pins out. The top two sections of pins practically
fell out because the bridges had failed so badly. However, the bottom section was
still so tight it took me almost two hours and a very sore spine to get the pins out of
it.
20) The case of the piano after the sound board had been removed.
21) The sound board, shot from the back, after it was removed from the piano.
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22) Now that the sound board is out of the piano, the
bridges can have holes drilled into them through the back to index where they are located
on the sound board. In addition, the dowel rods which passed through the ribs into
the bridges must be drilled out to enable me to remove the bridges from the sound board.
23) Soaking the old glue and splinters of old sound board off of the rastin (the
shelf on which the sound board is glued.)
24) The bridges have been removed from the sound board and most of the splinters of
sound board which came off with them have been cleaned off. New bridges are to be
made so it isn't important that I get every trace of old wood off; just enough to make it
easy to work with the old bridge during the duplication process.
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25) The rim of the piano has now been stripped. This
photo was taken with the case wet with lacquer thinner in order to highlight the grain of
the wood.
26) Since the distance shot didn't really show the grain of the wood as well as I
could have liked, I'm including another photo which better reveals the beauty of the
Rosewood after the old finish was stripped off.
27) Fitting the new pin block to the plate.
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28) The pin block has been fitted. Now it is turned
upside down so you can see the fit. Everything which is black along the leading edge
is wood which makes physical contact with the plate. This 100% contact helps
establish good tuning stability and a better tone since the assembly reflects the
vibrations of the strings back into the strings rather than absorbing those vibrations
when it is fitted so tightly.
29) Transferring the plate screw hole and pin hole locations to the pin block.
30) Drilling out the pin block to receive the tuning pins and plate screws.
The drill press is angled to match the angle of the tuning pins. The usual
recommended angle is 7 degrees but I have found that 5 degrees works better since the wire
coils gather on the pin better and the pin is more comfortable to tune at this angle.
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31) Now, we move on to the action work. These are the
damper guide rails after the old varnish and dirty wood had been sanded away but before
the old bushings were punched out. The next step was to punch the bushings
out. By punching them out rather than drilling them out, I can more readily maintain
the shape of the guide holes. Before new felt is installed, the wood of the rails
must be bleached to chemically neutralize all residue which would discolor the new
finish. Then new lacquer is applied and finally new bushings are installed and
clamped into place with cauls made from #7 bridge pins. This will allow the
replacement damper wires to glide up and down inside the bushings freely without being so
free that they aren't able to quickly damp the strings.
32) The finished damper guide rails after all restoration is complete. I even
cleaned up the rust from the screws and their threads and gave them a light coat of
lacquer to prevent them from rusting or tarnishing in the future. The clamping cauls
will be left in the bushings until the piano is reassembled. This will ensure that
humidity swings won't effect the bushing felt in such a way as to cause it to change shape
enough to create sticking dampers.
33) The action before work began.
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34) The action stack has been removed from the key frame.
This closer inspection revealed that one of the action brackets is badly broken.
I will have to pull all the brackets off. I will drop them all on the floor
from a great height to see if they show any signs of breaking. If they do, I'll
replace them all. If not, I'll replace just the broken one. Replacing action
brackets is a difficult task when trying to keep the action dynamics correct. Better
to replace only one if possible but I will take no chances. If any of the others
show any signs of being brittle, I will replace them all. This task wasn't part of
the original contract but this isn't something I'm willing to leave as is in the piano and
I don't feel that I want to ask for more money for something like this. If it takes
me an extra day to get these brackets replaced, so be it.
35) The action stack has had all the old parts removed. All that remains are
guide hammers to assist me in installing the new hammers on the new action. I also
saved one whippen to use in double checking my choice for new whippens.
36) Soaking out the old key bushings and the leather off the back checks. The
old leather was so bad that it was hard as a rock. It will get all new buckskin.
I prefer to do this job rather than replace the backchecks because replacement
backchecks are notorious for not fitting tightly into the wood of the keys. These
checks fit very snugly and so I will make them functional again while maintaining their
tight fit.