Cracked Steinway lid

[Phillip Ford]

Bob,

Since you said ANY comments, I'll offer a few, although I don't know how 
helpful they will be in your particular situation.  I have a Steinway C on 
which the lid was broken in half by the movers, bless them (fortunately it 
was on the way to the refinisher rather than on the way back).  I repaired 
this lid with good results.  I've also repaired a couple of other broken 
lids, so that's the extent of my experience - not extensive by any 
means.  All the lids I repaired ended up being black, either because the 
piano was already black, or because extensive repairs (such as fixing a 
broken top) dictated that life would be easier if the piano was black.

If you want to repair the lid and have a clear finish on it (have it still 
be rosewood), that's going to be tough, unless you have a really good 
touchup person.  In my experience if there is a break in the face veneer at 
the same place that there is a break in the core, then eventually there 
will be a crack in the finish.  One option is to just live with this and 
call it patina.  In which case, join the two halves with biscuits as you 
suggested.  I would use epoxy since the two halves aren't going to be flat 
and clean.  Also the epoxy will give a better color match to the rosewood 
than wood glue.  Another option would be to try to replace a strip of 
veneer and try to get a decent match with the existing veneer, and then 
have the lid refinished.

Here's what I did on the Steinway lid.  I cleaned up the two mating edges as
best I could by removing any splinters, etc.  Joined the two halves with 
biscuits using epoxy.  I joined it on a large flat surface and used straight 
pieces of wood clamped across the lid to keep it flat while the epoxy 
cured.  BTW, I laid wax paper over the top to keep from bonding the wood
clamp pieces to the lid and under the lid to keep from bonding it to the table.
When cured, I scraped off any excess epoxy.  Using
a straightedge as a fence I cut a shallow dado (a little less than 1/16 inch
deep) with a router and a dado bit, which spanned over the crack
(dado approximately 3 inches wide).  I did this on both faces of the 
lid.  I then took some 1/16 inch poplar and cut to width to match the dados 
and glued the strips in.  I don't remember if I used epoxy or wood glue for 
that.  I then hand planed to almost flush and then belt sanded flush.  The 
lid was then refinished.  The repair is invisible even after several 
months.  I chose poplar because it is relatively soft and easy to plane and 
sand and because it doesn't have any noticeable grain and is easy to 
finish.  Also, since the lid was going to be black I didn't have to worry 
about matching to what was there.  I would say total time involved was 
about 6 hours.

You might take this a step further and route another slightly wider dado 
just slightly less deep than the thickness of veneer (given the thickness 
of veneer available these days, that may not be so easy - it would be better
to make your own thick veneer by resawing a piece of lumber, but since we're
talking about rosewood here, that's probably not an option).  Glue on some 
veneer and then get it down level with the rest of the lid - belt sander 
not a good idea in this case - I would probably use a scraper to do 
that.  Then refinish and hope your refinisher is good enough to disguise 
the fact that there is a non-matching piece of veneer.  Since the veneer on 
the top is several flitches anyway, if you get a decent match on the wood 
grain then it might not be that obvious.

Good luck

Phil Ford



In your case you could perhapsAt 10:59 AM 1/15/2004, you wrote:
>I have a client with a cracked lid on her 1873 Steinway. I would 
>appreciate ANY comments you have. The lid is cracked through the veneers 
>on both sides, from the tail to about a foot from the front lid. It looks 
>like there is only the veneer layer on the core, rather than crossbanding 
>and then the veneer (rosewood), but that would be most unusual and I could 
>easily be wrong about that. My first guess is that the lid will have to be 
>split on through, then glued back with biscuit joints, then the lid refinished.
>
>What is your experience with repairing cracked lids? Do you know anyone 
>who does it regularly and successfully? Any idea about time/cost? The only 
>one we have had reglued was mostly successful, but just a little off in 
>the vertical direction. It takes so LITTLE on such a big flat surface, to 
>show.
>
>Any help appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Bob Davis