Restoration of a Steinway Upright for the Vonsiatsky
Family
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40) It's time to rebuild the action. The budget doesn't allow us to completely
replace the action. Instead, I will go through each part and restore it carefully.
There are two parts to an upright action that tends to cause problems when we reuse
the original parts. The hammer butt flanges and the hammers are usually the weak
spots. The hammers are usually worn to the point where reshaping them only yields
moderate improvements in tone. The butt flanges which the hammers swing on get the
most stress of any part of the action and tend to wear out first. With the wood and
bushings of the action being the originals, reconditioning of these parts could leave us
with a weak spot. The old flanges could tend to develop problems with use.
Because of this, the unique Steinway double hammer butt flanges will be replaced with new
parts as will the hammers. All the rest of the parts will get careful restoration of
any and all components which are not in like new operating condition. This photo is
of the action before work began.
41) Another angle, showing the dampers.
42) Another angle showing the worn, dimpled whippens.
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43) The first job was to remove all the dampers levers. The lifter felts on
these levers were hard and causing squeaking problems. In fact, someone who didn't
know what they were doing, actually greased these parts to stop them from squeaking.
That doomed the lifter felts if nothing else did... The grease was carefully
cleaned from the action so that no residue will remain to cause future problems. In
addition, the glue that was holding these felts in place was failing. So, when I
cleaned off all the old damper felt, I also cleaned off these lifter felts. New
felts will be glued onto the dampers now. The damper felts will be glued onto the
levers later; after the piano is restrung and the action in place inside the piano.
This will ensure that the felts are glued on in such a way as to line up perfectly with
the strings. While I had the damper levers on the bench, I went through and
tightened all the set screws that hold the wooden damper heads to the wires. I
scrutinized these damper heads as I went along and found that some of them had cracked or
were threatening to crack. Since I had a spare Steinway K action from the same
period in the shop, I replaced all damper parts that looked questionable with vintage
parts that were looking very good. In order to glue new lifter felts onto the damper
levers, I had to glue one end of the felts strips only. After the glue set, the
strips were stretched down the damper lever and over the end and then glued to the back
side of the lever and clamped. This left the center areas of the felt where it rides
on the lifting spoons and rod free of any glue joint. This is a nice Steinway touch
that is not usually found in piano actions. By having the wear surface floating
free, the felt tends to resist compression and maintains its regulation longer and better.
44) Now the whippens were removed one section at a time. While they were off,
the let off felts were replaced. The dimples in the bottom felts on these parts were
removed by running a bolster under the area of the felt which was free of glue like was
done on the dampers. This bolstering enabled the felt to resume the correct shape
which will return the function of the action back to factory original specifications.
The jacks were then lubricated with three coats of a special lubricant similar to
graphite. The three coats were used to prevent it from wearing off with use.
The original lubricant had worn off the jacks over the years. The final step to be
taken with the whippens was to remove all the center pins on which the moving parts
swing. These were replaced with larger pins that were test fitted and installed to
return the parts to their original snug fit. These parts need to swing very freely
but not have any wobble in them. The jacks had developed some wobble and the whippen
flanges were getting ready to do so. By putting in larger pins, they should last a
good long time and function as new. If the loosening of these pins had occurred
because the wood had worn, the parts would probably have to be replaced. However,
the loosening was strictly due to wear in the cloth bushings. Therefore, it was
possible to repin them and have a reasonable expectation of reliable service from them.
One final thing that was done to the whippens involved replacing parts. The
repinning process can be hard on the wood parts. Any parts that showed signs of not
being able to take the stress were replaced with vintage parts from the spare action.
45) Now the hammers are to be removed and restored. The hammers themselves
will be replaced with new. The shanks that they are glued to appear to be in good
order and will be reused. A couple of the shanks had been broken. The two
assemblies with broken shanks will be replaced outright from the vintage action so that
the entire thing looks even and consistent. Nothing looks more odd than to have a
couple of parts in a vintage action which have been replaced with new parts. The new
parts stick out like sore thumbs. I prefer to replace all the parts of a certain
type with new or simply replace any defective items with vintage parts that are in good
order.
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46) In addition to replacing the hammers, the bridle tapes
which were last installed will be removed and new tapes put on. The correct tapes
will be used this time. This type of butt calls for a brass clip replacement tape
rather than the plain tapes which were bodged onto the parts previously. These type
of tapes will look far better in the finished product than the sloppy ones that were last
installed. The flanges that these hammer butts ride on will be replaced with a
totally new set and the under-leathers will be replaced with new leather as pictured in
this photo. This will have resulted in the replacement of all parts which are worn
and/or suspect with either new parts or quality vintage replacements.
47) The new hammer/damper flanges are being installed back onto the action.
Note that the action cloth that sits under the flanges has been replaced as well.
48) This photo shows the new leather which has been installed under the hammer
butts. It has been burnished with graphite to make it operate more smoothly.
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49) The entire action rail has been restored and in now
ready to have the restored damper levers reattached.
50) Custom drilling the new Isaac Cadenza hammers. Drilling the hammers in
shop rather than having the work farmed out as I used to do makes for a more accurate
result.
51) The new hammers are installed onto the action and the new clip on bridle tapes
have been put on. You can just make out the reattached damper levers in this photo.
The felt of the dampers will not be installed until the action is in place in the
restored piano. This will ensure perfect alignment. The next project is the
installation of the sound board. Some of this process has already been shown.
However, the skin which was order turned out to be the wrong dimensions and had to be
reordered. This result in a delay of about a month in the project.
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52) This edge of the sound board is glued to the piano in an
unusual way. The entire edge of the board is actually revealed in the piano rather
than being set in where you can't see it. This photo shows the board clamped upright
so that I can run a hand plane over the surface to true it up and to round over the corner
so that it will be cosmetically appealing in the piano.
53) The skin of the sound board is now totally shaped and ready to be indexed to the
old board and to the case of the piano.
54) One last thing remains to do before the sound board can have the ribs glued onto
it. The original sound board was not diaphramized. No one had yet thought of
doing this to a piano at the time this instrument was originally built. This is a
technique used to thin the edges of the board so that it will vibrate more fully at the
edges, thus increasing the overall power of the instrument. Along the one edge being
worked in this photo, is a massive hardwood board which glues to the back of the sound
board and supports it in this area. Many lesser pianos will allow the sound board to
run unsupported clear to the corner. This does nothing to help with the tone of the
piano and, therefore, this "deadman" bar is added to give the board support and
also to make the board vibrate in a more complex manner appropriate to amplifying each
note. The corner of the board is simply included so as to close the back of the
piano in from the outside. The wood in this corner is actually unnecessary and could
actually be omitted with no harm done... In this photo, I'm using the router to
locate a groove into the string side surface of the sound board. This groove will do
the same job that thinning the rest of the edges does in the following photo.
However, in order to keep the board flexible, yet strong, I opted to thin the board in
this manner along the "deadman" beam. This step could be omitted but it
will give the piano greater power and sustain than it had when it was new from Steinway so
I feel it is worth the effort.
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55) Guiding grooves are sawn into the edges of the board and
then a hand plane is used to thin the edges down to the bottoms of the saw cuts.
This is how we get an even thinning of the board all around. The area closest to the
upper treble is left untouched. The most important thing the sound board can do in
this upper area is to remain rigid. The amplification of the highest strings occurs
mostly through sympathetic vibrations through the bridges to the other strings along with
a small amount of vibration in the sound board. However, more of the lower areas of
the sound board are responsible for amplifying these highest notes than is the upper
section of the board closest to them. The reason we leave the sound board more stiff
here is so that the energy of the string's vibration is able to be reflected back into the
string more fully because the bridge is anchored more rigidly due to the stiffer sound
board underneath it. By reflecting the string's vibrations back into the string, we
increase the sustain of that string which is the issue of paramount importance to the
overall tone of the piano in the uppermost section.
56) The old board is laid over the new skin and lined up via the index holes.
Then all the important landmarks are transferred to the new board. The bridge index
marks and the holes for the nosebolts are a couple of the most important marks which must
be accurately transferred.
57) Using the original sound board as a guide to line up the clamping cauls in the
sound board press. The cauls are aligned to the ribs of the board and also they are
shifted so that the lowest point in each caul falls directly under the treble bridge
location as nearly as is possible.
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58) The ribs are now being glued to the new sound board.
59) Using a hand plane to shape the profile of the ribs to the same dimensions as
the originals. On some brands of piano, I will take liberties in this area and
correct any poor design elements I see in the ribs. This piano is well thought out
and the R&D people had basically solved all the problems correctly. Therefore,
copying the original was a perfectly acceptable approach. With the addition of a
diaphramized edge to this board, it is conceivable that some changes to the rib shapes
could possibly further amplify the tone of the piano. However, it would take several
attempts at different configurations to find one that worked well. Since time and
money only allow us to do this once, the original configuration is being used on this
piano. Since no obvious flaws in design exist, it is likely that any slight changes
would only produce a nominal difference in any event.
60) Gluing the bridges to the sound board. The angle of the photo and the
design of the press make it difficult to take a photo that will actually show the bridge
itself. It is underneath the board during this gluing step.
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61) The sound board is finished and ready to glue into the
piano. I tape off the bridges and the areas of the back which will later be the glue
joints. Then, I coat the entire surface of the board, front and back, with a thin
layer of West System epoxy. I feel that this step helps to stiffen the wood at the
outer surface which helps the board to project better; at the same time, this method of
sealing the board keeps the finish from soaking into the wood as deeply. With the
inner core of the wood less effected by finish, the board remains more flexible than if a
normal sanding sealer were applied.
62) Gluing the sound board into the piano.
63) The plate has been repainted and installed into the piano. It is now ready
to be strung up.
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64) During the stripping process, a temporary employee sent
the original decorative boards to this piano out to the stripper not realizing that the
decoration in those boards was pressed into the paint. When the boards came back,
the decorations were forever gone. To remedy this situation, I took genuine,
original Steinway boards from another style X that matched this unit exactly and used its
fretwork boards as patterns. You can see the original Steinway fretwork on the right
and the board from this piano on the left. The paper pattern made off of the
original has been glued to the surface of the other board.
65) Now each area that must be sawn free of the board has a hole drilled through it.
The fret saw blade can be threaded up through this hole and then reset into the
saw. This allows each piece to be cut free without producing any unwanted saw kerfs.
66) The treble wire has now been strung onto the piano. The bass string
section has been patterned and sent off to the winder. I like to wait until the last
minute to make this pattern. The tightening of the treble wire can effect the
overall dimensions as does the fact that the sound board has been replaced. This
delay to the last minute enables me to send a very accurate pattern to the string winder.
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67) The boards on the left are the original decorative
boards from this piano. The boards to the right are matching ones from another X
that was built at the same time. All the boards on the left need now are some black
lacquer and it will be almost impossible to tell which was which.
68) Regulating the action. Since we were reusing much of the original
action with just the most delicate and damage prone component replaced, I had to take
great care with how I did this. The primary goal is for a really nice feeling
action. However, I had to take great care with the damper wires and damper lifting
spoons. These parts can be activated by the pianist for years with no harm done but
the bending torque put on them during regulation is enough to break older parts like
these. For this reason, once I had the damper lift at the pedals and at the keys
within a very close tolerance, I did not go any farther. The result should be an
action which damps very well but may be just a trifle unbalanced for anyone who attempts
to do half pedaling (a skill usually only attempted by very advanced pianists.) The
extra little bit of perfecting wasn't worth the danger of breaking a part to achieve.
69) The bottom board before restoration. The movers who brought the piano in
had broken off one of the pedals. Happily, I had a set of authentic Steinway pedals
from another X model piano which could be used for replacement to keep them authentic.
Replacing them with new pedals was the only other option. I chose this route
because the owner had expressed a desire to keep everything as original as possible.
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70) The bottom board assembly after restoration. The
pedals have been cleaned down and polished to a high gloss and all the leather bearings
and felt spacers and bushings have been replaced.
71) The bottom board has been reinstalled.
72) The rear screens have been cleaned, repainted and put back into place on the
piano.
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73) The reassembly of the cabinet continues.
74) All the cabinet is back together except for the fretwork boards which are still
being lacquered black. As an added bonus and a thank you to the owners for all their
patience, I am making a machine embroidered dust cover for the keys which will have the
Steinway name sewn into it. I will hold off on final tuning and voicing until I am
made aware of a moving date. I'd like the tuning to be as fresh as possible before
the piano is picked up.
75) The finished piano!