Steinway K keyblocks / paint in grain

[Avery Todd]

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Peter,

It's been many years since I've totally disassembled a vertical for 
refinishing but
I'll give it a guess. :-)

At 11:35 PM 9/17/05, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I'm a novice technician. I have recently acquired a Steinway Model K 
>of 1905 vintage. I am currently stripping it of the thick and lovely 
>coat of green paint that some well-meaning soul slapped on it, 
>presumably in the 50's. I have several questions:

We have one of these at the university, so I could check, if needed.

>1. How are the keyblocks removed? There are no screws anywhere to be 
>seen - neither below or on the side. The only possibilities I can 
>see are that a) they are glued on or b) they are attached by dowels 
>and can be removed only with the front rail removed. But these both 
>seem extremely unlikely.

I seriously doubt they are glued OR doweled. My guess, other than the 
front rail possibility, is that there is a way to removed the 
fallboard and the screws are located on the back top of the blocks.

>2. I also can't figure out how to remove the legs. Sure, one removes 
>the screws at the top but then? There's no room to slide them out. I 
>believe they are doweled into the toe block - perhaps one has to 
>remove the toe block.

I imagine the piano will have to laid on its back and the wheel 
"stuff" removed. The screw for the bottom is probably in there.

>This all seems contrary to the ease of dis-assembly I've found in my 
>(probably obviously very limited) experience with other pianos.

Some pianos do make it difficult to figure out how to take them 
apart. Especially some of the older ones. These are my best guess. 
Maybe someone else will have better ideas. Can't help on the 
refinishing question.

Avery

>Also
>
>3.  I wonder if anyone knows a magic trick to remove paint left over 
>from the initial stripping that is embedded in the (mahogany) grain? 
>I've re-applied stripper and then steel-wooled and used a nylon 
>brush, wiped with solvent. Did the same with Formby's Furniture 
>Restorer. Both helped but both left some still embedded  and both 
>required serious effort. Perhaps that's as good as it gets and I 
>just need to settle in for the long haul, but - any suggestions?
>
>4. I also have a 1883 Chickering upright. The case has some 
>beautiful tracery on the front panels. I initially thought it was 
>cut into the wood - however it appears to be in the finish itself. 
>The case needs to be refinished and so the tracery would be lost (if 
>I am correct about it being in the finish). Was this a common 
>practice? Are there people who re-create this work?
>
>Wow! Pretty wordy for a first post!
>
>Thanks,
>
>Peter Simcich
>
>
>
>

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