<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <title>Remove old finishes fast!</title> <style>  </style> </head> <body> <div>Knew the subject line would lure you in ...</div> <div> </div> <div>Here's how Jesse French and I celebrated Earth Day: removing the old finish, reducing the piano's weight by half, tweaking certain noses, and putting badly needed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.</div> <div> </div> <div>The most fun moment was pushing it over: Wham!</div> <div> </div> <div>Interesting observations: Many of the plain wire strings snapped right at the speaking-side bridge pin as they got hot -- all that broke, broke at that same place (more tension in speaking segment?). Somewhere late in the game, as the pinblock area was burning (took a loooong time), the plate broke. I was not too far away and it was scary loud: Bang! I am reminded of the customer who's Kawai grand burned completely in a house fire; he asked me did I want to salvage any of the parts, perhaps the strings? Uh, no thanks. I did salvage some action pieces (stickers and whippens) and all the hardware, especially screws, I could reasonably get to. They don't now make hardware with a tenth of the quality of this 90-year-old stuff.</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div><img hspace="0" src="cid:earth day.jpg@39567.9161639005.491" align="baseline" border="0"/></div> <div> </div> <div>Alan Barnard<br/>Salem, MO<br/> <div> </div> <div>P.S. If anyone is bothered by my sooty footprints, email me privately and I'll tell you a little secret.</div> <div> </div> </div> </body> </html>