Piano Refinishing

[Greg Newell]

Dear Jim,    (doesn't have the same ring as a "dear John" does it?)

I have to voice some disagreement here. I think that the methods used to 
refinish a piano are somewhat different than a piece of furniture and 
therefore articles do indeed belong in the Journal. I offer this for 
instance; I once wondered how to keep the stripper from running down the 
inside of the rim onto the soundboard until I was shown the trick of 
putting the piano on the front of it's keybed so the stripper will drain 
straight down. How, one might ask, can I finish the cabinet without 
disturbing the strings and plate and the rest? Or ... is it possible to 
keep the original color without messing with dyes or stains? Or ... do I 
have to remove all the hinges and all those tiny screws? Or ... what will 
happen to the brass if i drip some stripper on it? Some of these could be 
explained by your every day furniture refinishers but certainly not all.
         I'll make my point once again with a short story. I have for a 
long time shied away from finish work feeling inadequate due to my lack of 
knowledge of the subject. I had a customer who took delivery of a beautiful 
desk while I was there to tune here old Knabe console. I remarked on how 
beautiful her old antique desk now looked and she proceeded to shower 
accolades upon her finish guy and how well he did several other pieces for 
her. Always looking for sources and such I took his name. It was not one 
week later that I went on a call to examine some insurance claim of water 
damage of a ladies piano. It had some leak from above speckle the surface 
with some water spots. I didn't know what to do at the time and referred 
her to my new found guy still fresh in my mind from the previous week. She 
used his services, the piano came back and sounded dead so she called me. I 
came back out and found that the finish expert had sprayed the plate ... 
strings and all! I told her that this was a no, no and she put me on the 
spot and got on the phone with the guy. He asked what was wrong and she put 
ME on the phone with him. I explained that he should not have sprayed the 
strings and he asked, ... now get this ... "What was I supposed to do, 
leave them dirty?". Can this serve as enough evidence of the differences 
between refinishing furniture and pianos? Granted that this guy may not 
have been the sharpest knife in the drawer but still ... I'm sure that he 
was well meaning but just a little ignorant.
         With respect to all those who feel that these articles do not 
belong in the Journal i ask simply, what can it hurt?

Greg Newell



At 08:33 AM 6/4/2002, you wrote:

>In a message dated 04/06/02 7:54:49 AM, jonpage@attbi.com writes:
>
><< Even an article about piano moving is relavent.
>Regards, >>
>
>Dear Jon.................Actually it should be addressed et al....but I've
>always wanted to write a Dear Jon letter! :-)
>
>  There is a dearth of articles in the journal on refinishing for several
>reasons....but these are just my opinions........
>
>1. There is an absolute plethora, a bountiful sufficency, a superflurous
>abundance,,,, of refininshing books available...workshops to
>attend...materials manufacturers literature...........etc. The large majority
>of it is very good and very easily obtainable.
>
>2. Unlike piano technical thingees........ refinishing applies across the
>board to all furniture type stuff and is 'not' piano specific nor is it
>'part' of the piano technicians trade.  It is part of the rebuilders
>trade.....but see above No.1.
>
>3. Help is hard to come by for most 'piano' techs without a touchstone of
>some description, i.e. colleague in community, pianotech, seminars
>etc..........while the woods are full of refinishers who will help a newcomer.
>
>4. While I love Jeannie to death I must disagree with her desire to put
>refinishing articles in the Journal. While an occasional piece on a certain
>technique or new material would be welcomed by me if I want truly useful in
>depth info I will go to where that wheel already exists.................
>
>My view....
>Jim Bryant (FL)

Greg Newell
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net