[CAUT] vellum hinges (was Re: Baldwin D bridge)

[Ed Sutton]

This link brings you to an excellent article on John Delacour's site.

http://pianomaker.co.uk/technical/vellum_hinges/

Ed S.

 Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Sturm 
  To: caut at ptg.org 
  Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 7:37 PM
  Subject: [CAUT] vellum hinges (was Re: Baldwin D bridge)


  On Nov 17, 2010, at 5:04 PM, Edward Sambell wrote:


    Vellum and parchment are more or less interchangeable terms, vellum being the preferred term for the best quality. The vellum would last for decades, then suddenly break. How would one repair this? We did know, but I will let everyone see if they can propound solutions, then I will tell. 


  Back to this question, Montal had a couple answers from his time. As he describes it, the vellum hinges were glued on one side to a rail, which had a wooden strip screwed over the vellum hinges. So the first step was to unscrew that wooden strip and reveal one half of the broken hinge, and remove it with a chisel or the like. The other end was attached to the moving part. In one case, the hammer of the little square pianos of the time, it would be held between the hammer shank proper (rectangular in cross section, laid long end horizontally) and another piece of wood that was glued so as to pinch the vellum. So you undid the glue joint, preferably using heat, possibly dipping it in boiling water, and scraped or cut away the old material. Then cut a piece of vellum to size (a little long), glue it to the shank and the other piece, and glue the other piece to the shank, wrap with thread and let that set. Then trim away the thread and glue the other end to the rail, trimming the vellum to length as needed, and check to see that the hammer lined up with the string. Adjust as needed.
  The other kind had the same rail, but the other end of the vellum was inserted and glued into a slot. So the difference was that you sawed the vellum out of the slot, then cut a new piece about an inch wider than needed, so as to be able to pull it into the slot holding it on both sides with your fingers. Glue, and work it in, let set, trim, glue to the rail.
  So what is the Sambell method?

  Regards,
  Fred Sturm
  fssturm at unm.edu
  "I am only interested in music that is better than it can be played." Schnabel

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20101118/9e202be6/attachment.htm>