Interesting knuckle arrangement on your piano Clark. I certainly don't consider myself an action expert, so take anything I suggest with a big grain of salt (never stopped me from speculating though). Maybe someone like David Stanwood or Ron Overs might be able to offer some critical thinking on this setup. A few better pictures of the arrangement would help also. Is the "knuckle lever" on a spring? It appears it has an action center at the rear end of it. Obviously it functions as the hammer shank knuckle. But what is the advantage of having the knuckle independent of the shank? Less mass (doesn't seem like that would be a big deal). I'm staring at it, but I can't figure out what it would do that a modern knuckle doesn't do. I wonder if some advantage doesn't lie in the fact that it's rotational movement would be opposite that of a knuckle fixed to the shank - maybe so, but what would that offer? There appears to be an adjustment screw going through the rear portion of the repetition lever, just forward of the repetition lever height adjustment screw - it looks like it has a piece of red felt on the top side of the repetition lever and the screw goes through it - picture is fuzzy - what's that all about? Pics, pics, pics! Need good clear pics!!!!!! Thanks for sharing. Very interesting. Terry Farrell On Nov 25, 2010, at 9:49 PM, Clark A. Sprague wrote: > Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. We all have something to be > thankful for. These pictures are from the 1890-95 A.B. Chase that I > just bought (serial #31241). This beast is Victorian style, > rosewood case (needs veneer repairs), 7 ½ feet long. The things I > noticed were: the beams underneath are MASSIVE, and look like oak, > the belly rail looks like oak too. The inner and outer rim are > MASSIVE, and it has a beam that runs cross-wise across the width of > the piano, about at the midpoint of the soundboard. The thing has > 15 ribs under the board, in a straight array. The pictures of the > knuckle and whippen are an arrangement I have never seen before. > Has anybody else seen this? The knuckle is a wooden “hump” under > the shank, and the interface on the whippen is another lever, on the > top of the repetition lever, and the jack lines up underneath that. > Does anyone have an idea what that was all about? I looked at the > bridges, no apparent cracks, and the treble bridge is fairly > straight, without any really apparent doglegs. I think this could > be rebuilt and be a whopper piano for someone? Anybody out there > interested? I haven’t moved it yet, and don’t have any more > pictures at this time. More to come soon, upon request. > > Clark A. Sprague, RPT > csprague4 at woh.rr.com > <image001.jpg> > > <image002.jpg> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101126/c21b0c8d/attachment.htm>
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC