Restoration of a Steinway M for Andrea Tyree
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1) This rare cabinet design is pictured in this picture
before restoration began.
2) Another angle before restoration began.
3) The loose cabinet parts have been removed and the hardware taken off and marked
for identification.
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4) The action has been removed here. This picture
shows that the knuckles of the shanks and flanges (pointing left) have been treated with
some substance to try to lubricate them at some point in the past. This substance
has turned the knuckles hard and unrepairable. Also, these shanks and flanges have a
problem which occurs to some Steinway pianos as well as others called verdigris. The
brass hinge pins have become so corroded that the parts are almost totally frozen.
Thankfully, the whippens (the parts to the right) don't appear to be affected.
Probably, the fact that this piano lives its life within sight of Long Island Sound has
accelerated the decay of the brass hinge pins. It is fortunate that this piano did
have to wait a little over a year for its turn in the rebuilding shop. Frequent use
can help to mask the effects of verdigris by constantly rubbing the pins with the wool
bushings. If the unit had been immediately restored, it is possible that the
verdigris would not have asserted itself so markedly thus causing us to miss the serious
potential nature of the problem. If these parts had been left in the piano,
the owner would certainly have developed sluggish key action eventually. It was not
originally planned to replace these parts but now we see that it must be done.
5) The strings have all been removed. Paper patterns have been made for the
string winder from the plate and bridges. These will allow the string winder to make
the strings exactly to fit the piano; taking into consideration every slight variation
that is unique to this piano. Most rebuilders have Steinway strings made simply by
calling up and telling the winder what Steinway they have. The winders have records
of how to make most all Steinway scales. My winder (Isaac Pianos) knows that each
Steinway had slight variations in the way the bridges were cut and the plates drilled.
By using a paper pattern instead of original strings or a simple phone call, we can
have strings that fit this piano much better. In fact, it is likely the new strings
will sound better than the originals did. They will certainly sound better than any
string available from any other source in today's market.
6) The plate has been removed, revealing the old stained and worn out pin block.
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7) This picture shows the leading edge of the pin block.
This edge joins into a lip on the cast iron plate. The best pianos have as
near to 100% contact with the plate as is possible. You can see from the light areas
on this block where the wood touched the plate. Note that there is contact along the
entire edge of the block. However, the actual total surface area is not a complete
fit. There is simply some small bit of contact along each linear inch. The new
block will be made to fit in a similar manner to the original Steinway block. Then a
very thin layer of very hard yet flexible epoxy will be laid onto the joint to take the
areas that just miss the plate and cause there to be contact on 100% of the edge of the
pin block.
8) Index cards are being made so that the new pin block will fit the case of the
piano perfectly. Holes are drilled through the plate and into the original block
before the plate was removed. These holes are duplicated onto these indexes.
The cards are then cut to fit into the edges and corners of the piano's case exactly so
that the new pin block will also fit into the case exactly.
9) Now the old pin block has been cut from the piano leaving a 1/2 inch strip of
wood still glued to the stretcher. It is important not to get the cutting machine
too close to the stretcher since we don't want to damage it.
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10) The last of the pin block wood has been cleaned away
from the piano by use of a very sharp chisel. Typical of Steinway clear finish
pianos, the edge of the stretcher that was glued to the pin block is also veneered like
the outside facing surface. The ebony units don't have this problem. Some of
this veneer inevitably comes loose during this process. The voids left behind must
be repaired before the new block is glued and doweled into the case.
11) The front of the stretcher has suffered from humidity. This complex layer
of veneer with its double row of fine pin striped marquetry has come unglued along much of
the surface. Sadly, someone has tried to repair portions of this before leaving a
mess behind. Using the tools shown in this picture, as much of the veneer as
possible is further freed from the underlying wood. Some areas are still well glued
and cannot be dislodged without damage to the veneer. It would be far easier if the
entire panel of veneer were loose but since it isn't, glue must be worked under the veneer
with thin spatulas and then the veneer clamped to dry. Cold hide glue will be used
to glue the veneer back down. The original glue would have been hide glue so there
is a good chance the use of the same again will help to reconstitute some of the old glue
thus making the finished repair stronger. In the middle of the board, you see one
strong white line. This is where the veneer was loose in an area that could not be
accessed from either edge. In order to gain access for glue application and in order
to free up this veneer enough to get the glue in, a razor blade was run exactly in line
this one of the grain lines in the veneer. Then the blade was used to work up the
veneer in preparation for glue application. By using a razor and by following the
grain exactly, there should be no visible sign that a repair was made in this way when the
work is finished. All of this is done before the piece is stripped so that the old
varnish can be used to protect the wood from glue squeeze out, warping and from the
clamping cauls. Also, the veneer is far too weak to take the stress of stripping
until it has been repaired. The most difficult part of this repair will be in
correcting the damage done by the previous attempt at regluing. This previous
attempt broke the veneer panel in certain spots and also dislodged some of the marquetry.
This dislodged marquetry was partially lost and partially glued hard and fast in
the wrong position by the previous attempt.
12) The veneer of the front stretcher is being reglued. In order to clamp the
veneer on the curved areas a specially made caul and backer had to be made. The caul
is 1/4" plywood which has been set with numerous kerfs so that it will bend around
the form of the stretcher. The backer is a large block of basswood shaped to match
the stretcher and also shaped so that the clamps can be placed on it in a way which is
square to the piano. A thick layer of felt was placed between the backer and the
caul to ensure that the clamping pressure was evenly distributed. Only a layer of
plastic film was used between the caul and the veneer to prevent the caul from becoming
permanently glued to the stretcher by any glue squeeze out. No padding was used
between the caul and the veneer to ensure that the surface of the veneer was returned to
as near a flat surface as possible.
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13) The long flat section of the stretcher has had most of
its glue joint fail as well. A similar clamping arrangement is pictured for this
area of the stretcher. The next step after the glue dried here was to inject glue
into a couple of areas that couldn't be accessed from the edges and were difficult to try
to access by slicing with a razor. These areas were then clamped and allowed to dry.
Finally, the opposite curve on the stretcher was glued back down reusing the caul
and backer that was made for the first side. Due to the poor quality attempt at
repair made earlier, there will also be a need to do some planing, filling, burning in,
touch up and grain faking in order to complete this repair.
13a) Rebushing the damper guide rails. Steinway guide rails require such heavy
bushings that it is necessary to install the new felt in two layers. Here, the first
layer is going in and being held with large clamping cauls while the glue dries.
13b) The finished rails. All six of the pianos currently being rebuilt had
their rails done at the same time. The fifth set of guide rails back from the front
go to this piano. This picture shows the smaller cauls still in place holding the
second layer of felt while the glue dries. All the rails are scraped, sanded,
bleached and refinished before they are rebushed with extra quality bushing cloth.
Many piano makers, including Steinway, put no finish of any kind on their damper guide
rails. This causes the wood to become badly oxidized. It isn't easy to see
these rails in the finished piano, but they can be seen if you look for them. I want
any piano that leaves my shop to have everything look brand new if possible even if it is
somewhat hard to see it in the finished product. Before these rails were started on,
the wood was actually a medium dark brown from oxidation. Now they look as good as
the day they were new.
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14) This picture shows the lid to this piano in the
stripping tank. The large duct you see in the tank evacuates the fumes from the
stripper. Since these fumes are heavier than air, the flow straight down off the
board into the tank where the fan picks them up. Fumes come from other places, in
the shop, however, and therefore a gas mask must be worn during this process to prevent
physical injury.
15) The new pin block blank is pictured here next to the original pin block.
16) Here, the new pin block is being fitted to the plate. You can see from the
dark spots where the pin block is hitting the plate in a direct wood to metal contact.
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17) After the block has been fitted to the plate, it is
marked and then the screw and tuning pin holes are drilled out. The tuning pins are
drilled at an angle to assist in resisting the tension of the strings while the screws are
drilled at a 90 degree angle.
18) Tiny voids are still left in the plate lip to pin block edge joint after the
block has been fitted to the plate. These voids can easily be ignored since the
contact is excellent anyway. But in order to bring this contact up to a complete
100%, a thin layer of epoxy is placed on the surface of the pin block and then the block
is placed against the plate and clamped into position. A thin plastic wrap barrier
is used to prevent the block from becoming glued to the plate. Once the epoxy sets
up, the result is a fit to the plate that is more perfect than can be accomplished any
other way. It is only a slight improvement over the well done wood to metal fit but
it makes me feel better to know that it isn't just excellent, it is perfect. Enough
clamping pressure is used when this is done to ensure that all the original points of
contact of wood to metal remain simply wood to metal as before with no epoxy. The
epoxy is simply squeezed into the tiny low spots. After this is done, the
indexes made earlier are used to mark the exact place where the pin block needs to be
trimmed along the back and sides in order to make it fit the piano perfectly as before.
Follow this link to see how the pin block is
cut so that this line is perfect and ready to be glued into the piano. The block is
first cut out on the table saw leaving the line behind. Then the block is dressed
down to the line on the jointer.
19) The capo bar has now had all the string marks removed from it and has been
polished to a high gloss to assist in ease of tuning.
Quality@pianorestoring.com