Piano refinsihing question

[Mark Potter]

Greg Newell <gnewell at ameritech.net> wrote:                Mark,
                  Could you describe a formal rubbed ebony finish? Please?! Thanks in advance!!
   
  Hi Greg -
   
  Well, it's late, and to describe the process in detail would require an entire chapter in a finishing book, but here's an outline...
   
  The basic concept is to manipulate every square inch of the applied finish by sanding, rubbing, etc to produce a finished surface far superior in look and touch to anything that could ever come straight off the gun (or brush).  Rubbing to hi-gloss is a bit of a different animal, but not drastically so.  Personally I like to rub to a satin or semi-gloss surface. This entails leveling the finish(after all topcoats are applied) by sanding, either by hand with long straight strokes with a flat block/pad, or for those going the ultimate route - using an in-line sander. Once everything is flat, say with 600 paper, you start bringing the sheen up to where you want it, using wool or scotchbrite or abralon or other pad of your choice, with lubricant of your choice, again going in long, straight strokes, with ever finer grit of pad.  The scratch pattern created by these strokes needs to be very uniform for the end result to be stunning.  
   
  It is good to remember that you are ultimately removing a fair amount of material, which therefore requires you to apply multiple coats to a surface you have leveled several times, otherwise you will most certainly rub thru the finish at some location in the process.  Bad juju.  The most dangerous areas for this to occur are the edges, of course, where you just can't pile on material, and where sanding strokes can easily get destructive.  Rounding slightly every sharp edge before the finishing process begins will go along way towards minimizing this inherent danger.
   
  That the basic idea, and if it sounds like alot of work, you're absolutely right.  It is, however, IMO, the ultimate finished surface.  Hard to keep your hands off it...so enticing...
   
  Mark
   
   

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