Fixed Whippen

[gordon stelter]

I have worked on an 1878 Knabe gerand with the keys
and wippens pinned together in this fashion. It is
said that Ulysses S. Grant liked playing on this
particular piano, and "SOMEONE"(?) apparently stomped
on the upper keys, as all the jack tenders and forks
were shattered in that area. As the wippens were
"0ddball", and not at all available currently, I built
up the shattered portions with West's and their
colloidal filler, sanded, filed, drilled and bushed,
and all now works very nicely. 
    As I'm sure you are aware, Richard, a pinned
wippen has less friction than a capstan arangement.
But oh! What a pain to regulate! Especially on a
grand!
     Thump

--- Richard Brekne <Richard.Brekne@grieg.uib.no>
wrote:
> Ran into an action today that I will be replacing
> hammers on and doing
> some basic touchweight evening and the action was
> rather rare so I
> thought I would jot down a few lines, tho I havent
> had a chance to
> really inspect it closely.
> 
> Of note was the capstan/whippen coupling. Here was a
> typical rocker
> lever, but where the capstan would usually be was a
> center pin. From the
> whippen was a pinned post with a cashmir bushed push
> on connector that
> coupled the key to the whippen.
> 
> Also there were 88 assist springs, all very strong.
> Rather large
> hammers, tho way too mushy and worn, very little
> leading except up at
> the top where there was a good deal of back leading
> and extremely light
> touch even tho the action was very poorly regulated.
> 
> Keyframe had no glide bolts and balance pin rail 
> was a 5 ply vertical
> laminant. Outside on each side looked like fir about
> 5 mm thick, then
> two layers of birch I believe perhaps 2 cm thick ,
> then a very thin ply
> fir again in the middle .... maybe 3 mm. The back
> rail was similiar but
> had a couple more plys with the middle section being
> a 2 cm thick peice
> of  the birch sided by two peices of thin fir. Grain
> went lengthwise.
> Front rail looked like the fir again...same grain
> orientation but no
> plys. Coupling peices were all in the fir with the
> grain going
> perpendicular to the rails. Tho the frame had quite
> a bit of flex to it
> when you lifted it, it was dead flat on the key bed
> and it didnt look
> like there had been anything done with the frame for
> 30 -40 years.
> 
> Its one of two locally made grand pianos. Jacob
> Knudsen. No serial
> number but I can find out when it was made. Probably
> around 1950. Looks
> to be about 250 long, big but not quite a full
> concert length.
> 
> I'll get to check out the action closer in the next
> couple days when I
> get it placed in my shop
> 
> Cheers
> 
> RicB
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Richard Brekne
> RPT, N.P.T.F.
> UiB, Bergen, Norway
> mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no
> http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html
> 
> 
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