Rodgers' Piano Restorations
The Best Piano Rebuilding in the Business
9091 Ox Bow Rd.   North East, PA 16428
Because  I have a great deal of work to do, I am forced to concentrate my efforts on all matters which concern the tasks before me.   Sadly, the telephone has become a constant source of interruptions to the work schedule which consist largely of people seeking free information and telemarketers.   I lose between one and two hours each day to these people when I answer the phone.   Because of this, I have been forced to shut off phone communication so that I can better serve my customers.  In addition, the email spammers have become so thick that I am getting thousands of spams per day.  They are so thick that even spam busting software cannot stop them.  The spam has flooded my email so badly that I can no longer gain access to my own email.  Even after trying a change to the email address, the spammers found us again in a very short time.  Each time I try to access my email I simply get "timed out" because of all the junk that is in the folder.   Although I would love to be able to communicate via email, I have been totally blocked from that venue by these parasites.  If you wish to communicate with me, the best method at this time is to send a letter to the address listed above.  I know this seems slow compared to other rebuilders, but it will be well worth the effort since the quality available here is of the highest order.

Restoration of a Knabe Victorian Grand and its transformation to a Pianomation player piano for Don Hollingshead

70) 71) 72)

70)  The new lid core after being cut out.
71)  Now the original lid is used again.  It is clamped to the new lid and then the edges of the new lid are sanded until they come into perfect alignment with the original lid.  Provided the shape of the original lid matched into the rim of the piano perfectly, this will ensure that the new lid fits perfectly as well.
72)  Testing the new lid against the piano to see that it overhangs the rim evenly all around.  This check actually failed, revealing that the original lid did not fit the piano perfectly.  New lines were drawn onto the this lid directly from the rim and a new shape cut just a little smaller than the original.  This will ensure that the lid overhangs the rim perfectly all the way around.  The new lid will actually fit the piano better than the original one did!

73) 74) 75)

73)  Doing the work of cutting out the veneer to be glued to the lid pieces.  The top of the lid is made from one huge, long piece of veneer.   The grain pattern of the veneer passes along the lid, over the hinge and onto the small part of the lid seamlessly.  The width of the lid made it necessary to fit extra pieces of veneer to the edges on the smaller, treble end.  On three of the pieces (two big ones for the big lid and one smaller one for the smaller lid) I was able to match the grain of the wood veneer in so well that the joint will disappear and the pattern of the grain will continue right across.  However, on the top part of the small lid, the veneer which continued on from the large lid was of a type of grain that I had no matches for.  I chose to use the trimmings off this piece and to splice them together with the grain all matching throughout to try to get a better grain and color match for this.  Once the glue is dry, I will evaluate how this came out.  If it looks like it will appear chopped up, I'll redo this section with different wood.   Better to have the grain not match exactly than to have the seams look chopped up.   This photo shows some of the process of joining two pieces of veneer.  The two pieces to be joined must first have their edges cut straight and sometimes matched and planed until the joint between them is completely perfect and tight throughout.  Then tape is stretched across the joint very tightly to pull the edges of the veneer closely together.  Then tape is run along the join to completely seal it off and hold it together.  Then the veneer is turned over and the join opened on the tape hinge that was created on the other side.  Glue is applied to the edges of the veneer and then the pieces hinged shut and laid flat.  The excess glue is cleaned away and then more tape is stretched over the joint from the back to seal it and make it tight.  It is surprising that you can actually glue veneer pieces together just by gluing their edges but if you get the joints tight, it really is possible.
74)  All the veneer is now cut out.  This top photo shows what the piano's lid will look like when the big lid is down and the small lid is flipped back to give access to the music desk.  This is the position the piano will be used in most of the time so a great deal of care and thought went into choosing the veneer patterns which would be used for these surfaces.
75)  The veneering press is now set up and ready to have the lid's veneer glued onto the core which was cut out above.

76) 77) 78)

76)  Using the routing table joined to the veneering table to route out the decorative chamfer that edges the lid.  The lid is upside down so that the chamfer can be cut.  This is too delicate an operation to attempt to do by running the router over the board.  It is easier to get a consistent result by running the board over the router in this fashion instead.
77)  Just before the lid was chamfered, the veneer for the top was placed over the core wood and tacked into place with very tiny nails.  These nails are driven through the veneer in areas that will be very dark due to the color of the grain.  The location of the nail piercing will be invisible when the lid is finished.  The wood of the veneer was trimmed to fit the lid leaving a little extra to spare.  Then a special cutting tool was used.  This tool follows the actual edge of the core wood and guides a cutter to remove a strip of veneer from around the edge to correspond to the chamfer.  This will leave me with a matching strip of wood which can be glued to the chamfer whose grain will match the rest of the lid exactly.  This tool works fairly well but I have another technique that I think I will use in the future; including the other half of this lid.  It involves indexing the veneer to the top and trimming it to fit.  Then the top is chamfered.  Finally, carbon paper is placed face up around the lid at the edge where the chamfer begins.  The veneer is placed back over the lid and carbon paper and repositioned using the index marks.  Then the veneer is lightly hammered all around its circumference.  This will mark the veneer exactly where it needs to be cut.  I will, then, cut the veneer strip free using very sharp scissors and rotary cutting razor blades.
78)  The big lid has been positioned inside the veneering press and coated liberally with glue.  The veneer is positioned over the lid and secured in place so it won't move.  Then two boards are placed either side of the lid to act as skids.  The clamping caul is slid in over the lid along these boards.  Once in place, the boards are removed so the caul will rest on the lid.  Then many, many spreader-type clamps are positioned and secured tightly over the assembly at regular intervals.  This puts just enough pressure on the veneer to get a nice flat surface without forcing the glue to squeeze out excessively leaving a dry joint.

79) 80) 81)

79)  A picture of the press from the other side the next day.   In this photo, the top veneer is also secured in place.  In this photo, you can see  how newspaper is used to prevent the lid from gluing itself to the clamping caul or the table of the press.
80)  It would be quite easy for me to hide all my less than perfect outcomes on this web site.  However, I believe in truth in advertising so this picture is being posted.  I was unhappy with the flatness of the veneer on this large part of the lid after it came out of the press.  I spent two days working with the raw veneer to correct much of this.  Because of the type of glue I used it was possible to heat the wood and glue and roll out any areas that were lumpy into a smoother consistency.   Also, a number of small areas of veneer didn't take to the glue.  These were mostly areas the size of a nickel.  In order to find any places on a piece of veneer work which have not glued down properly, it is necessary to tap the veneer with the pads of your fingers.  Every single square inch of veneer must be tapped.  When it is glued down well, the sound of the tap is dull.  When there is a loose spot, the sound develops a slight tick which you must listen keenly to find.  Any areas not glued down well could effect the finished look of the lid since they can't be counted on to stay still.  The best way to correct this problem is to take an exacto knife and make a slit in the veneer in the area that is a problem.  This slit is always created by following one of the dark grain lines exactly.  By doing this, the slit becomes totally invisible when the finish is applied.  Once the wood is severed, a hypodermic glue injector can be slid into the slit and new glue injected into place.  For the tiniest flaws, this is usually enough to solve the problem.  On somewhat larger areas, a clamp and caul must be employed to ensure contact and flatness.  When I was done with two days of working this lid, I had it as flat as I could get it.  I also had a number of carefully considered theories as to why it didn't come out as flat as I had expected it to come out.  More on that in the next photo.  What this photo shows is the wood of the bottom of the lid having been coated with West System epoxy.   This is a substance that dries quite hard enough for durability yet is very flexible and adheres to the wood very well.  By spreading the epoxy over the wood using a very large straight edge spreading blade, I was able to begin to fill out the areas which were low while leaving a very minimal film on the high spots.  After the epoxy set up, it was sanded lightly to remove as much of the spreading marks as possible and to give it some roughening up so the next layers would adhere well.  Then a second layer was spread in the same way.  After this second layer was dry, it was clear that I had solved the problem of the wood not being perfectly level.  We are only talking about a discrepancy of about .010" from the highest spot to the lowest.   However, this is enough to cause a poor reflection in the finished lid later on.   The problem is effectively solved for this part of the lid.  The lessons I learned will be taken to the smaller section of the lid and applied to it in an attempt to get a flat result right out of the press the next time.
81)  Here, you see the second half of the lid after it was cut to size to match the piano's rim and the other portion of the new lid.  The chamfer was also cut in this at this time.  I made a few changes to how I did the process on this lid to try to improve the initial result after removing the piece from the press.  My first conclusion was that installing the veneer into the assembly dry was a mistake.  In the first lid piece, I glued the veneer into place with the veneer bone dry.   However, the glue contains water.  This water has an enormous amount of strength.  As it hydrated the veneer, the veneer attempted to swell.  Since the clamping cauls and downward pressure were so great, the veneer was unable to spread out and grow as it got wet.  The result was that the veneer buckled at its weakest areas forcing itself to press down into the glue layer much more aggressively.  This had a two fold effect.  The glue in the areas of tension was pushed off to each side.   And the glue left under the areas which pressed downward was left too thin to bind those sections of veneer properly to the core of the lid.  The lesson here was to hydrate the veneer before it was placed into the press.  Since this veneer is paper backed to stabilize it during transport and while working with it, I chose to moisten the paper backer only.  Since the backer limits the growth of the wood since the paper grows less than wood, I wetted the paper only.  This ensured that I wouldn't create buckling in the veneer as the veneer tried to grow more than the paper backer.  I allowed the moistened backer to hydrate for a full hour before inserting the veneer into the press.  The section of veneer in question grew at least an eight of an inch during this time.  When the veneer contacts the glue applied to the core wood, it should respond by binding better with the glue.  The natural barrier of the veneer which prevents the infiltration of the glue is opened up by making the paper backer moist.   So the glue will grab the veneer better.  Also, the veneer will not attempt to spread so there will not be any enormous forces inside the assembly which will lead the veneer into buckling despite the flatness of the caul and the clamping pressure.   Finally, I made a point of being very careful about how much glue I applied to the substrate.  I made a very even layer which was barely enough to create an excellent bond with the wood but very little extra.  This should minimize any chance of the veneer pressing down into this layer of glue causing uneven surfaces.  It is likely that this project would have been perfect in every way from the beginning if it weren't for one thing; I am not called upon to reveneer entire lids all that often.  I've reveneered sections of lids which were being repaired and I've reveneered lids on uprights.  But I have never been called upon to reveneer boards of this enormous size.  The learning curve, therefore, was somewhat lacking.  However, I have found solutions which will leave the finished product looking factory perfect and my second glue up should be adjusted properly to ensure no future major problems.   Finally, the decision was made to leave the piece in the press for several days until the moisture content in the wood dropped and stabilized.  The basic moisture content of the Baltic Birch veneer plywood was 10%.  After a day in the glue press, I found that the areas closest to the veneer had risen as high as 18%.  On this second board, I plan to wait until the moisture can stabilize more thoroughly before removing it from the press.  I suspect that the first board may have still been better in the press and some or all of the problems we had to deal with cropped up after we removed the board from the press.  This time, I intend to be sure the glue is set as hard as it ever will before removing the pressure.  Once again, this is truth in advertising.   I was definitely not happy that I had not gotten the first lid piece veneered perfectly the first crack out of the box.  But I prefer to allow the world to know I'm human and still have things that I can learn.  Happily, the final product is unlikely to suffer a bit from this.  If I thought it would, I would have destroyed the wood I made the first lid board out of and started again even though that wood cost around $1000 all together.  It I had to scrap that $1000, I would have if it meant making the lid perfect in the end.  I was reluctant to scrap it because I was only sent four sheets of veneer.  The two I used on this lid were perfect matches to each other and work exceedingly well cosmetically.  To switch to the other two sheets at this time would have compromised the beauty and symmetry of the finished product, since the other two sheets do not match nearly like these ones did.

82) 83) 84)

82)  Now it's time to glue the veneer onto the chamfered edges of the top of the big lid.  To do this, the veneer which I trimmed from the big piece in the center was employed.  I did something here that you will seldom find on a piano lid.  I matched the veneer on the chamfer perfectly into the pattern of veneer on the rest of the lid.  The look of the finished veneer job is breath taking.   I was really stunned to see the beauty of it.  I'm even tempted to try to talk more clients into throwing out their original lids so that I can make them much nicer custom replacements.  The lid on this piece is going to look very, very special.   To clamp this veneer down properly after it was carefully hand fitted to join into the chamfer properly, I had to make dozens of clamping cauls.  These started out as spruce sticks cut out at a 15 degree angle.  For the long straight side, one stick would work.  But along the curves, the edge doesn't just turn but is rounded as it turns.  This meant that very small sections of wood had to be cut, one side rounded to mate up to the lid and the edges reshaped to butt up to their neighbors exactly.   Once all these cauls were perfect, the veneer was reassembled onto the lid and taped snugly into place.  Then the veneer was lifted up one section at a time along its tape hinge and hide glue worked underneath it.  I always feel I can get a better result from hide glue when veneering.  I only refrain from using it on sections which are just too huge to get the glue into place and under pressure before the glue gels up.   In this photo, you can see that the entire rim has had the chamfer veneers clamped down into place.  After the glue dried, I removed all the cauls that I had painstakingly made and then threw all of them away save the one straight piece.  I can use that piece on the other lid.  The rest of the cauls were made specifically to fit this lid and will never be useful again.
83)  The usual way that all companies veneer the very edges of their lids is to take a strip of veneer and glue it to the edges.  This veneer is almost always oriented so that the fibers of the veneer run up and down (from ceiling to floor.)  This leaves the veneer very weak.  The result is that broken, split, loose and missing veneer along this edge is the most common problem I find in all the rebuilds coming through my shop.  But I have a solution; a permanent one.  This photo shows 1/8" thick strips of wood which have been cut oversized to be glued to the edge.  Pianos which are made from mahogany often have the veneer made of mahogany.  In the case of this piano, the veneer was originally rosewood.  However, rosewood is a very brittle wood when cut into veneers.  That's why we use paper backers.  But paper backers show in cross section.  So, the solution was to cut a wood that was hard enough to make the edge of the lid much tougher than any other lid made by man; impossible to break bits off or crack and also thick enough that the edges can be rounded for a good hand feel and a good blend into the rest of the veneer.  Since Brazilian Rosewood solids were not available and would have been too hard to bend around the edge of the lid anyway, I chose to use English Walnut.  The veneer patterns on it are very similar to this Rosewood.   With careful staining, you'll never know the difference between them.  This extra thick wood will be hard enough to make the edge very durable probably for the next century or more.  Yet this species is just flexible enough to get it around the lid without any special heat treatment and/or danger of cracking it.  A perfect solution to make this the most beautiful and durable lid that money can buy.  A much better lid than could be bought in any new piano.  The trick to gluing these strips to the lid involves drilling small pilot holes periodically through the strips and nailing them to the lid with carpet tacks.  Once the glue had set, the tacks were removed and the remaining holes filled and blended out so you'll never find them.
84)  The edges are glued into place.  The front edge where the hinge goes is a much less likely place to be damaged.  I seldom find significant damage here.   When it is damaged, it is usually easy to repair.  I used the normal technique of gluing a strip of the matching rosewood along this edge.  The pianist sees this edge more than any other on the piano so it is a good thing to use very distinctive looking rosewood along here to highlight the edge and make it blend well along with being beautiful.  The thicker walnut edging is not needed here for protection and would, in fact, interfere with the proper fitting of the piano hinge.  The technique used to attach this front edge of veneer was as follows:  aliphatic resin glue is spread liberally onto the veneer and the lid.  The wood on the opposite side of the glue on the veneer is dampened to prevent the glue from warping the veneer.  Then both sections are left to dry just until the glue turns translucent.  When this happens, the veneer can be ironed into place.  The heat of the iron will melt the glue just enough to create a permanent bond.  Once the iron has attached the veneer, the wood is rubbed with a cold, flat object to ensure a flat surface and a tight one.  Until the glue has cooled, it is always possible for it to let go somewhere.  So constant rubbing with a cold rubbing caul is helpful to keep the joint tight until the glue sets.   It only takes a couple minutes.  This technique is good for edges like this but won't provide flat enough final result to trust it to entire lid surfaces.  That is why I didn't attempt to veneer the main surfaces of the lids with this simpler technique.

85) 86) 87)

85)  The music desk repairs were started at the end of page two.  Here, the slot which the rack will slide on is being cut into the wood.   This slot design removes a lot less wood from the rack than the original Knabe design.  It will make for a much more rugged rack that is not so prone to damage during hard use.  In order to get the slot cut perfectly, the router table is fitted with a large slotting bit and then special guide rails were mounted to the fence so that the bit rode inside a wood protector right up to the center.  This enabled me to cut the slots much more safely with no need to freehand any part of the cut.
86)  The small lid as it looked after it came out of the press for the last time.   The newspaper was included to keep the glue squeeze out from gluing the lid to the work surface.
87)  The router table has been used to cut the chamfer on this small lid just as it did on the big lid.  The veneer was carefully matched onto the lid so that it carried the grain lines of the veneer right off the edge onto the chamfer.  It makes for a very nice look which you don't usually find even in good factory jobs.  The veneer is taped into place then glue placed underneath and clamping cauls placed over it and then many clamps applied.  The more pressure applied, the better the chances that the veneer will end up with a nicely flat surface.  The veneer on the small lid had been moistened and allowed to grow from the moisture for at least an hour before it was glued onto the lid.  The edging veneer had to have the same treatment in order to get it to grow enough for the grain lines to match up to the rest of the lid.  I discovered that pre-swelling the veneer like this keeps the glue from forcing the wood to swell in the press.  This leaves the final surface much more flat than when I glued the veneer into place with the veneer totally dry. 

88) 89) 90)

88)  The big lid is being glazed with a special marine grade epoxy.  It is meant for use in finishing ship's hulls as well as for structural work like gluing up wooden pieces and constructing boat hulls.  It has the ability to flex with the wood unlike any other product I could use.  This epoxy glaze enabled me to feather out all the slight surface imperfections resulting from the veneer swelling when it came into contact with the glue in the press.  In addition, all veneers suffer from slight surface waviness due to the way it was cut from the log.  The veneers of yesteryear used to be so thick that they could easily have these minor imperfections sanded out.  The veneers supplied now are very thin so we have to find other ways to perfect the surfaces to prevent sanding right through the wood.
89)  Since this lid was smaller, I took advantage of this and clamped the edge coverings into place rather than tacking them as I did on the large lid.  This prevented any need to fill tack holes and fake grain over those holes later.  Due to the shape of the large lid, the tacks were really the only solution.  But on this piece, the clamps are a much better route.  The extra thick hardwood edging will be excellent for protecting the edge of the lid from damage and chipped veneer over the years.
90)  Now the leading edge where the piano hinge will be placed is also veneered in Rosewood.  Some of this veneer will have to be cut away later in order to inset the hinge.  This photo shows the grain of the lid veneer very well.  It is truly going to be a beautiful piano when it is finished.  (I'm going to be very sad to have to give it back to the owner!) 

91) 92) 93)

91)  The cheeks of this piano's rim, the cheek blocks (shown earlier), the inside surfaces of the cheeks and all the wood trim around the keybed had all been badly damaged by moisture and abuse.  I felt that trying to repair the veneer and wood trim around these areas would only yield a "satisfactory" result.  In order to achieve a factory perfect or better result, I removed all the veneer from these surfaces as well as all the trim around the keybed; that includes the keybed trim which wraps behind the keybed underneath the piano.
92)  This photo is of the glue ups done to make new keybed trim.  To ensure that the trim is durable and tough, I made it out of hard maple.  Then I veneered the maple in Rosewood.  After the pieces came out of the clamps, I measured and miter cut each piece to fit the piano and then ran each piece through the router in order to install the cove decoration that runs all along the top edge of this trim.  The two pieces which were under the piano were actually salvageable.  I removed them, repaired them, re-stained them and faked Rosewood grain onto them since the originals hadn't been matched in to the rest.  Knabe had simply stained them the same color but had failed to fake the Rosewood grain.  The back of the piano, by the rear leg, has trim to match that which I'm describing here.  That trim, also, has lost its fake Rosewood grain.   To repair this, I will either veneer it with real Rosewood or fake Rosewood grain onto that trim.  Which technique I use will depend on my decision as to which will look the most seamless.
93)  The new Rosewood veneers that will be glued onto the piano have been prepared and the grain matched as closely as possible.  In fact, the new match will be better than the original match ever was.  The piano will be coated with aliphatic resin glue and the veneer to be fitted will also be coated.  Once the glue has dried to the point of becoming clear, I will use an iron to adhere the veneer to the piano.  This technique is excellent for bonding veneer to surfaces which are difficult to get clamps onto.  By the next day, the glue will be set enough that heat will not effect it much anymore and it will have become waterproof as well; preventing the moisture delamination which occurred before.  In order to iron on the rounded portions of the cheeks, I will use a metal pipe which has a wooden dowel run through it.  The pipe will be heated and used to iron the veneer into place.  You will also note that the stretcher (the piece of wood that runs across the front of the piano above the keybed has been removed.  I discovered that this piece was not fitted into the rim as on most high end piano.  It was butt joint glued and then reinforced with cast iron brackets.   Once the brackets were removed, I found that the glue joints had failed.  This made it much easier to do final restoration to the stretcher.  It also assisted in preparation of the stretcher to have the pin block glued to it and it also made more room and ease for placing the new veneer into position.  There are two solid rosewood finials which decorate each side of the piano's cheeks.  These pieces were held in place with two dowel rods and glue.  This glue had also failed so the pieces came right off with only minor "persuasion."  By punching holes in just the right places, I was able to work the new veneer over the entire cheek in one piece per side.  The holes punched in the veneer slipped right over the dowels.  Once the glue was well attached, the finials were glued back into place after receiving a careful job of stripping and sanding.

94) 95) 96)

94)  Here is a photo of the keybed trim pieces after they were completely done and ready to be glued into place.  The red pieces are the ones which I recycled and hand painted Rosewood grain upon.  If you look closely, you can see the fake grain and see that it is really a nice match to the real thing.  The other pieces have real Rosewood veneered onto them.
95)  Sorry this picture is a little blurry.  I'll get used to this new camera yet!  Clamping the new keybed trim into place.  I used hide glue for this job.   Technically, I should have been able to do this without clamps since I used hide glue.  If I kept coming back to it and pressing it into place, the hide glue would have quickly set and held the pieces permanently without clamps.  However, since these pieces get a lot of abuse, I wanted to make sure they were in place as solidly as humanly possible.  On the sides, you will note that I used wedges to exert clamping pressure to that trim.
96)  There is a piece of half round trim that runs in two parallel lines around the piano, some of which was broken off.  This piece of maple was made by planing half of a maple dowel rod flat.  Then the wood was wetted and heated and bent.  Once it was close to the right shape, I clamped it to the piano to hold it in place until it cooled and dried.  This made attaching it to the piano with glue a much easier and more successful process. 

97) 98) 99)

97)  Here, the new piece of trim is being glued and clamped into place.  Note that the trim has been pre-stained to match the wood tone.   The entire surface will get stained again and should leave the transition from old wood to new seamless.
98)  The customer wished to go for a look which is popular these days.  On darker pianos as well as on black pianos, it is becoming a common practice to make the inner rim blonde while staining or painting the rest of the piano dark.  In order to accomplish this as best I can for this piano, I bleached the inner rim with a very powerful wood bleach.  Then, after it was dry, I bleached it again.  Then, I coated the surface of the bleached wood with a very thin layer of orange shellac.   The orange shellac takes away the sallow look given to wood when it is bleached without darkening it noticeably.  You will also note in this picture that the keybed has been sanded clean.
99)  The inner rim showing the bleached surface with its light sealant.  Later, I will fill the grain by glazing with epoxy and then top coating with lacquer.  This will keep the inner rim as light as possible.  While I could have started with an epoxy glaze, I felt that a shellac seal job would do the color better justice and also make the epoxy come off easier during future stripping should a future owner choose to return the inner rim to the color of the rest of the piano.  This technique did not come out as blonde as some pianos which have their inner rims specially veneered with maples to produce a light tone.  However, the technique really highlights the extra beauty of the grain of the inner rim and makes it possible to appreciate that grain even with the lid on the piano.  It is interesting that Knabe saved some of the very best figured veneer for the inner rim and put some of the plainest grain on the old lid.   With the new lid done with a more appropriately figured wood, the overall effect of this piano will be much more balanced.  Before it seemed to have some areas of extreme figure and some areas with very little figure.  In fact, some areas were made with such straight grained veneer that I suspected at times that it was Indian rather than Brazilian Rosewood.  However, this inner rim convinces me that the wood is of that rare and expensive Brazilian variety because it matches so well with the South American wood I have acquired for all this new work.