Hammer Time!

I'm trying hard not to whitter on too much for too long on this posting... Oh, who am I kidding?

So, this edition is about the long-awaited hammers and shanks that came from America. I initially wasn't going to replace the old ones but after lots of deliberating about the restoration process I thought it'd not be a proper job if I didn't replace them. I had a bit of a shock when investigating prices of them. It's very difficult to get them for less than around £850 in the UK however, the ones I got were half that in US dollars!!! The hammers took just under a fortnight to arrive which, considering the fact they took 5 days to get from customs in UK to our front door wasn't bad going. Why they took so long at this end is anyone's guess! Anyway, that aside there was £72 in import tax and the like which I was expecting.

I opened the parcel at work as I had to collect them from the depot. I was due to be teaching a class of students music from Brigadoon and My Fair Lady that morning so got there a little earlier to play with the new toys. The students were very taken with my new purchase. Well, either that or they were just humouring their slightly strange lecturer. It was almost certainly the latter.

I read the instructions. Although the hammers were pre-bored of course they needed to be prepared to fit the shank snugly. I needed to buy a small reamer that would fit inside the hole to enlarge them to the correct size. I didn't have one of those so bought a few. They were dead cheap so I didn't worry about that.

After a lit of trial and error in getting the technique sorted out to successfully, accurately and quickly ream the hammers I was moving on apace. It took probably two days or so to do the job but it was worth it. The job comprised of reaming the hammers, checking for fitting of shanks. Lining up the placing of the hammer head on the shank by screwing to the hammer rail, having two old hammers placed on there at either end of the bridge sections and visualising a line from one end to the other to ensure the hammers were at the right point. This wasn't so easy as it may sound as glueing, lining up and everything else just takes lots of time as well as bucketloads of patience. Once all the glue had set there was a little bit of shank sticking out of the top of the hammer. This needed to be sawn off as it would otherwise catch on the backcheck. Out came the little trusty hacksaw to aid me. Sawing these was a gratifying task that was helped/hindered by Loopy - the neighbour's cat who's really called Lucy who seemed to I couldn't possibly manage without her arse in my face. Obviously, she felt the need to oblige!

I'm now at the stage where all of the hammers are fitted to the action and am roughly regulating them so that they're all level and the same distance apart. I know it's far too early to be doing this as the piano hasn't even got a frame in it. However, as the action is going to be knocking about in the house for however long a piece of string is I wanted it to look uniform. It'd do my head in if every time I looked at it all the hammers were out of alignment. Plus, I'm gaining valuable experience in piano regulation/repair technique by doing it too.

I've not been out to the garage to do much more work on the piano itself lately. I've been very busy at work and just glad to get home after the end of a day. I've been assessing lots of shows this last couple of weeks and have played piano in a few of them. Needless to say, that means that during lots of my evenings I have been otherwise engaged. I'm planning on going out at the weekend to do a bit.

Despite the above paragraph, I've still got on a little further on the main body of the piano. I've stripped the finish off most of the soundboard since last time I stuck a piccy up. As the soundboard is spruce and has been varnished since 1914, stripping that off has revealed a beautiful and pale new-looking soundboard. I plan on coating it with a clear varnish and then a few coats of laquer (although (I'll have to research that's the correct procedure first). I think it'll look like brand new. Some good news though is that after a very close scrutiny, it seems that what I thought were very slight cracks are actually just glue-joints from when the soundboard was first assembled. They're tight and solid so, at the moment of speaking at least, the soundboard is in amazingly good condition and will not need any restoration on it apart from making it look nicer with the new varnish. That's only a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

I'll stick one or two pictures on later today. Until then, tra-aa!