Photo Gallery
Partial Piano Restoration, Private Customer
Piano: 1910 Schumann Grand Piano
Full Piano Restoration at the Westwood Mansion for Knox Heritage
Piano: 1890 Sohmer & Co. Cabinet Grande Upright
Dedicated to Frank Hambright
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- This newly restored piano resides in its original location at the Westwood Mansion, now home office to Knox Heritage.
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- View with the front cover and fall board removed.
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- Upon arrival, the piano was in relatively good condition with no peeling or cracks evident in the finish.
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- A thorough cleaning and polishing revealed the rich dark hue of the Honduras Figured Mohogany.
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- The ivory keys were disheveled from over a century of use and unlevel due to problems with the action.
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- A full action rebuild and regulation has the piano looking good-as-new.
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- Keys become level overtime and collect stains and dust.
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- The pedals were excessively tarnished after 124 years of oxidation along with dirt and dust collection.
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- The pedals and hardware were removed, cleaned, renickeled, and polished. Felt was added into the notches around the pedals for esthetics and to prevent excessive noise as the pedals rise.
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- The fallboard hinge was tarnished and soiled. The screws were rusted and some were stripped.
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- and stripped old screws were replaced with new ones.
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- Critters destroyed the felt, tuning pins were tarnished, and the strings were rusted.
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- The original tuning pins, strings, and hammers were replaced with new components. These replacement parts will last another 50-75 years if the piano is properly maintained.
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- The bass end hammers, strings, and back checks were in disrepair prior to the piano’s full restoration.
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- The bass strings, hammers, and back checks were replaced with brand new material.
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- This picture highlights the level of destruction caused by mice, moths, and dust on the felt of the hammers and dampers.
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- The dampers, hammers, and strings were replaced with new parts and the action was regulated to factory quality specifications.
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- This close up shows the deteriorated original back checks, bridal straps, hammer shank butts, and capstans, which are components of the piano action.
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- The back checks were sandblasted and re-felted, the bridal straps and hammer shank butts were replaced, and the original capstans were updated with concert quality capstans for better action performance.
Before, During, and After A Full Piano Restoration
Piano: 1926 Francis Bacon 5’6 Grand
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- When these original ivory keys arrived, they were dirty, chipped, and missing a few key tops.
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- Thankfully the owner kept the ivory key tops that came unglued. *If you do not have your missing ivory key tops, we have thousands in stock
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- After the ivories were cleaned thoroughly we glued and clamped them. After the glue set we painted bleaching solution on the key tops and “cooked” them under a UV light for a week, which brightened them considerably. Once they whitened up, we used a white rouge buffing compound and buffed them to a fine polish.
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- Over time pianos get dirty…REALLY dirty. After the strings and pins were removed we could see the extent of the dirt. As you can see, the dust on the plate and soundboard has collected to the point where the golden color of the soundboard is barely visible.
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- This shows the amount of dust that collected where the tuning pins use to be.
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- Here you can see the amount of dirt that collected on the bridge and the old felt that desperately needed replacing. Felt is prone to be eaten by moths and it compacts and deteriorates over time.
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- Full view of the plate and soundboard from above.
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- Here is the soundboard after the cast iron plate was removed from the piano. You can see mounds of compacted dirt and liquid stains on the soundboard.
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- Here is the soundboard after the cast iron plate was removed from the piano. You can see mounds of compacted dirt and liquid stains on the soundboard.
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- These cracks to the right of the bridge (from this view) impeded the soundboard from resonating properly, therefore weakening the overall sound and integrity of the piano.
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- In order to restore the sound board to a beautiful color we needed to scrape away all of the old finish and then sand it several times.
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- Here the sound board has been almost completely scraped and sanding has begun.
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- This is the plate after it has been cleaned.
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- The plate is stained and the felt needs to be replaced.
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- We sanded the plate several times with different grits of sandpaper.
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- The plate is almost completely sanded and once is is wiped down we can paint it!
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- The plate has been painted and several coats of lacquer have been applied. The sound board has been coated with polyurethane. What an amazing difference…
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- The sound board buttons were added to hold the ribs underneath the piano in place.
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- Decorative red felt was added to the plate.
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- Standard green felt has been added to hold the strings as they come out of the pins.
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- Here is a close up of the sound board. If you look closely to the left of the sound board button, you can see the shim we used to repair the crack. It is a thin tapered piece of wood that is glued and clamped into the crack. After the glue set, the shim was chiseled flush with the soundboard and then sanded to perfection.
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- These are pieces of brass the go at the front of the piano to keep the strings from pressing on the plate. A bit of Brasso and some steel wool made a huge difference.
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- This is the lid hinge that cleaned up nicely.
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- These are more lid hinges that needed some TLC.
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- Like new!
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- The pedals have turned dingy and lost their shine due to years of foot activity and general wear.
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- This pedal has a clear cut case of oxidation.
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- Fixed that problem…
