Goofy 1884 Chickering action advice sought.......

[Greg Newell]

Gordon,
         Would a quick bolstering of the knuckles provide any addition in 
hammer height. Seems like it would and restore some shape to the currently 
flat knuckle. I might use several layers of felt strips of varying widths 
in a pyramid shape and then water on the buckskin to shrink it over the new 
felt. Seems like that couldn't take more than a half hour or so. If the 
flanges are indeed propane torched then all bets are off and they need new 
shanks and flanges. You can do what you'd like but if it were me I'd shy 
away from the entire job if they didn't want to do it the right way. If the 
centers are bad then it seems that you have no choice but to replace 
shanks. What's your reputation worth?

best,
Greg


At 07:32 PM 6/9/2005, you wrote:
>Trying to resuscitate this thing for the hospital
>lobby.....
>      "Knuckles" are flat areas of wood on shank
>undersides.....look like microscopic aircraft carrier
>decks upside down...... intend to clean it all up and
>"figgeritoutbestikan" .
>      After cleaning with lacquer thiner, what to
>lubricate these flats with ? ( Currently very
>burnished & lubed with "MysterySlip" )
>      No way to adjust hammer height, obviously, except
>hammer rail felt thickness .....
>      Striking distance ? ( 6'5" model )
>      'bout all I can think of now. Sage advice
>(Joe?) appreciated.
>      Jeepers.
>      Thump
>
>
>P.S. Some "artiste" decided to "free up" the hammer
>flanges ( thankfully NOT glued to the rail in this
>example! ) by blasting them with a propane torch. Many
>are generally charcoal, unavailable, of course, so I
>intend to 1)Remove from rail. 2) Seperate from shanks.
>  3) Clean in lacquer thinner. 4) Dunk in catalyzed
>lacquer ( or veeeeeeeeery thin epoxy ), also dunking
>the very ends of the shanks, where they connect to the
>flanges. 5) Drill out the old bushings and rebush. 6)
>Mebbe hit with a thin coat of white spray lacquer, to
>make them look a tad less horrid.
>
>Please advise/stop me if i'm an idjit.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Greg Newell
Greg's piano Forté
mailto:gnewell@ameritech.net