Refinishing Warning

[Farrell]

"I believe I'd look elsewhere."

Boy, you got that right!

Terry Farrell
  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard F Jackson" <hjackson8@juno.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 12:42 PM
Subject: Re: Refinishing Warning


> Terry,
> It sounds like the lacquer dried too fast and trapped moisture inside.  A
> little retarder would probably solve this, however if the finisher sent
> this back to you as a sample of his work, I believe I'd look elsewhere.
>  Howard Jackson
> 
> On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 09:31:37 -0500 "Farrell" <mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com>
> writes:
> > I have a rosewood square grand to refinish and have been considering 
> > subbing
> > it out. Got a few estimates. Gave one guy the music desk to refinish 
> > so that
> > he could provide me with an example of his work.
> > 
> > My general experience with the quality of refinishers has largely 
> > been
> > whether they rub out the final finish or not, and how well they 
> > remove any
> > orange peel, etc.
> > 
> > I picked up the music desk at this shop yesterday. Looking at it in 
> > his shop
> > it looked nice. Not rubbed out, but a nice smooth satin finish. 
> > Something
> > looked a bit funny about it, but I told him it looked good.
> > 
> > Got back to my shop and compared it to a piece of rosewood I had 
> > applied
> > some tung-oil-based varnish to. OhmyGod. What a difference. His 
> > piece was
> > milky - it looked like it was finished with 2% fat milk rather than 
> > varnish
> > or laquer. Horrible, horrible, horrible. You could see the rosewood 
> > grain,
> > but it was translucent rather than transparent. I had never seen 
> > anything
> > like it. They guy would not disclose his product used or his 
> > methods. I
> > would kind of like to know - just so I avoid ever wasting my time 
> > with it.
> > 
> > FWIW - make sure you see (and preferably can keep) a sample of your
> > refinisher's work.
> > 
> > Looks like time for another wrestling match with refinishing!
> > 
> > Terry Farrell
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> Howard Jackson, RPT
> Registered Piano Technician, Piano Technicians Guild
> Monroe, LA   (318) 388-4879
> e-mail: Hjackson8@juno.com