100+ Year-Old Laminated Rib

[Ron Nossaman]

> Anyway, very interesting rib construction. I had never seen anything 
> quite like this. I have the original soundboard from an 1890s Knabe 
> grand that I guess I'll just have to yank a rib off of and take a closer 
> look at it. Anyone ever seen anything like this before?
>  
> Terry Farrell


Yes, from an old Knabe grand, only the radii were a tad 
tighter. Nearly as I could tell, only the top four ribs were 
laminated. I speculated that they crowned the longer ribs by 
clamping them (bowed) in a jig and running them through a saw. 
Dale crowns them this way, and I used to before I started 
laminating them in cauls. Shorter ribs with tighter crown 
radii are hard to bend in jigs like that, so I envisioned them 
ripping thinner strips, and gluing the results to a straight 
backing for the short ribs. Seemed like a reasonable approach 
to me.

Ron N