1859 Erard of Paris Grand Piano Restoration

My Answer to Mr. Glynne-Jones

2010-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Wow, you just blew my mind. this is the 2nd email I've received this month about a restoration. That name "A Royer" is printed on my action parts. Your action parts are light in color, indicating good condition.

I see what you mean with the hammer felt. That was obviously done to avoid a full-scale rebuilding of the hammers. I found a guy online that was willing to build me 85 hammers for $500 but I lost his email over the years. The thing about erards is that they are restorable, but almost impossible to restore perfectly.

Now, on those brass collar nuts. I am missing one, and one is in horrible shape. To replace them will require a one-off machining. Your picture differs from mine as the threaded stem comes all the way to the top of the collar. On mine, the stems came just under the top of the collar--so I just used a screwdriver.

In your circumstance, an idea jumps to mind: Get a screwdriver that would fit the collar as close as you can get it and then file out a notch in the middle of the screwdriver blade, leaving your screwdriver looking somewhat like a carving fork. That's a quick way to get a tool that can get these collars off...

Another Erard Restoration

2010-11-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

I got this email from an Erard owner in Ireland...

Hi Michael,

Reading your restoration tale has inspired me to bring my own Erard 1864 Grand.Ser No 7933. back to life The action mechanisms are in reasonable condition but the hammers have had additional bits of felt added -can you tell me if you had your hammers rebuilt.see pictures
Im also trying to remove the cast iron plate and support bars but haveing problems removing the round 3/8 " brass collar nuts holding the bars to the frame bolts, see picture..Id appreciate any advice on how to remove them.

/Thanks E Glynne Jones ( in Ireland)

FINIS!

2007-12-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

Finished!

Er, um, Actually it's 1858

2007-09-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

Well, after my best estimate of the Erard Piano's age based upon serial numbers (I guessed 1859) it turns out that an artisan's mark on whippen #11 "A. Royer"--I have seen that name before in photos of other Erards from the period--indicates a manufacture date of 1858. These other photos show the installation of the new back rail felt (the green felt ribbon) and the regulation of the key height...

Tuning Up!

2007-07-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

Tuning up now. The sound is nice and deep. The Erard holds a tune nicely with the new #2 pins. The restoration is nearly complete...

Here's a picture of my tuning set-up: tuning hammer and a rubber mute. What you can't see is the condenser microphone plugged into an electronic tuner...

ReStringing

2007-04-08T17:57:00.000-07:00

Restringing now...starting from the bass and moving up. All the new felt is installed. The brass agraffes are all fully polished to brand new condition and have been lacquered. New tuning pins are nice and tight--this piano will tune up nicely.

Mapes Piano Strings of Tennessee did these bass strings; the new strings are absolutely gorgeous and have wonderful tone. I am rapidly approaching completion...

Reassembly

2007-03-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

Reassembling the freshly painted interior parts. Things are moving quickly now...

Finishing Soundboard Finishing

2007-02-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

Finally, I am approaching the end of the soundboard refinishing. The wood turned out to have a wonderful flame, and good amber color. The sealer I used was Rockler's shellac kit--mixing your own shellac truly does make a difference, it dries harder than Zinsser premixed shellac. The finish is 4 coats of Oxford premium spray lacquer.

This gorgeous decal is from Decals Unlimited...

Sealer Coat on the Soundboard

2007-02-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Finally! A few mist coats of sealer on the soundboard. I am using shellac from Rockler, with a 1.5 lb. cut. The blotchy parts along the left side will be hidden beneath the plate. I'll break down the spray kit, and brush from here on out...

Soundboard Restoration and Repair

2007-02-06T17:31:00.000-08:00

This is hard to see, but I have glued a slender shim into a crack in the soundboard. The block on top of the shim are compressed down with strap until the shim dries in place.

The arrows indicate a completed repair.

Soundboard Preparation

2007-01-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the plate removed from the case and sound board. I asked an experienced restorer over the internet about the procedure to get this out and he said..."you're a brave man for trying to remove the plate." Well, he was right, it sucked. Consider that every one of the 30 individual screws that I removed needs to be renovated and painted individually...

The pictures that follow show the plate removed, and some detail of what lurks underneath the slim aperture between the plate and the soundboard beneath. I do not believe that the plate has been removed for at least 80 years. The recent restorations were all done without removing the plate. Also, note that the instrument is no longer in the house, but in the workshop...

BARE!

2006-12-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

The Erard is now stripped bare, ready for a complete refinishing of the soundboard, plate, and interior of the case.

2006-12-16T18:26:00.000-08:00

Destringing now, starting from the bass strings and moving up--it's a pain.

The interior of the piano is a mess, and was not refinished the last time the outer case was refinished. There is staining here and there and the finish is blotchy and very amber. So, this is the first test of finish removal. With a simple cabinet scraper, the old finish flaked off easily.

And here is the first test section I did with scrapers and a bit of sanding. This is too dusty to go further with in the living room, so I'll finish destringing and then move the piano into the garage for refinishing.

Miniaturization

2006-10-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

This photo shows a broken jack; the jack allows the hammer to "escape" from the piano key. Well, it's complicated, but without a jack when you press a key, the hammer just wacks against the string and stays there--"THUD"! I have two broken jacks--one came broken when I got it, and I broke one when I roughly removed the keys for refinishing.

Shown here is my Lie-Nelson dowel press, along with a jack component that I made with the dowel press. The dimension of the tiny dowel that stick off of the end of the dowel jack is 1/8 of an inch. Very tiny, very hard to see and very hard to work with.

Here is the other half of the jack into which the dowelled portion is glued and inserted.

And here is the dry-fit jack reassembled next to an original jack.

Glued and drying...

The reassembled Whippen, with the repaired jack installed.

Lyre Restoration

2006-09-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

As you can see, these pictures show some stages of the restoration of the Lyre. Some interesting points: in the first picture, note the 3 brass bars. The one one the left I polished as a test. The two brass bars on the right were painted with a very poor brass paint. Why someone would paint brass with a poor imitation brass paint is lost on me. Perhaps they were so blackened with tarnish that they looked like steel--as I thought they were at first. In the 2nd and 3rd photos, you can see that I had to replace some decorative wood pieces that were lost to time. I did these with hand tools--a miter box, jigsaw, and hand drill. Man, do I need some better shop tools. Anyway, I am pleased with the results, all the brass is completely restored and polished, and lacquered, so it will not tarnish. Look at that brass shine, baby!

More Veneer Repairs

2006-09-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Before and after...

Three Legs!!!

2006-09-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, all three legs are complete: the veneering, finishing, and metalwork. When I spray the case I'll give the legs one more coat of finish...

Damper Restoration

2006-08-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

Lunch for Bugs!!! The moths got to these old dampers. The numbers are my notations before disassembly. The darker dampers appear to be from the 1957 restoration. The '57 restoration was obviously quality work, but too much time has passed. The white dampers are obviously more recent--the craftsmanship on the more recent repairs is dismal.

More filth here...that red felt on the bottom rail is almost entirely gone from moth damage.

The damper frame completely stripped bare, with my beer in the corner.

New dampers going back in...

Making repairs to the sostenuto tabs where they meet the damper levers. There is no pin at the juncture, just a piece of buckskin glued on both pieces. This was a very time-consuming part of the operation.

Here is the completed assembly, ready to be reinstalled.

Veneer Repairs on Legs

2006-08-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

Here is one of the legs--the metalwork is all done, so I moved on to the veneer repairs. If you recall, these were BAD, so I just sanded the old veneer to removed the high and low points, filled the gaps with wood filler and then veneered over the old wood. This wood is walnut, while the rest of the piano is rosewood. The grain is a good match, though, and I have pre-tested the color.

Here it is finished, with the new caster, and the ferrule polished like glass. The finish is minwax red mohogany and Jacobean colors layered until very dark, and 6 coats of polyurethane.

Voila!

2006-08-07T06:48:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have finished with the key tops. This got REALLY boring by the last one. A very tim-consuming job, but the results were spectacular.

Piano Leg Restoration

2006-08-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Look at this caster--this is wrong on so many levels. First, look at it bend--physics is winning the battle against this caster, and the only thing holding the caster and ferrule on to the leg are four very overworked screws. Next, look at the color of the lower part--the ferulle is brass, and polishes nicely, but the arm on the caster is steel with brass paint. These were totally homemade by some amateur in a machine shop.

Here you can see the caster assembly. The assembley is very heavy and the ferrule (which I want to use) is welded to the caster. I had to cut the ferrule away with an angle grinder.

Here is the ferrule detached from the caster, and the new caster that will go into the leg. The bummer of this job is that it's noisy, messy, and I have to do it two more times for the two other legs.

2006-07-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

I sprayed the sharps today. Here they are all laid out, lightly sanded, cleaned and ready for a fresh coat of paint. I used spray from a can and the paint, while nice and glossy, wrinkled. Perhaps it's the Texas summer heat. I'll wait a few months and do it again.

Message from 1957

2006-07-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

I found this message written in pen on one of the keys. I am not sure if you can read it but it has the date 22-1-1957 (49 years ago!), and the words "Barclona", and _____ Roca.

Later, when working up the dampers and damper assembly, I came across the following stamp. It says "Luis Roca" across the center, and at the bottom is says "Barcelona". These clues point clearly to a complete restoration in 1957, in Barcelona, Spain. How this thing got to Texas I have no idea.

Erard Piano Key Replacement

2006-07-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

Ahh...finally the keys come to life with brand new plastic keytops from International Piano Supply. The old ivories I'll sell on Ebay. I broke a jack (part of the action) removing one of the keys. That's two broken jacks now. I'll have to fix that later, but it's something I need to learn how to do anyway.

Ivory removal Kit

2006-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Here it is--the ivory removal kit, household iron and a good quality (Hyde) paint scraper with a stiff blade and a decently sharp edge. TIP: heat the ivory on the "Cotton" setting for about 15 seconds. Let the heat soften the glue. If the ivory does not peel off easily, then either the glue did not get hot enough, or there was a recent repair with epoxy or some other type of adhesive. This part of the operation went very well.

Then, I sanded the glue (which hardens back up when it cools) with a 150-grit sandpaper laid perfectly flat on a *very* level surface. The books insist that sandpaper adhered to a piece of glass (because it is so level) is the way to go, but I cut this corner, and it worked out fine.

2006-07-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, let's start with the keys. These are original ivory, and they are chipped up, yellow, and some of the fronts are missing--a fairly typical condition for a piano of this age. As you can see here, I have removed a few of the ivories.

2006-07-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is, the 1859 Erard Grand Piano, Serial number 31173, manufactured in Paris. It's 96 inches long, a full grand. As you can see, the keys are a mess, the casters are obviously not original, and the brass is dull. It sounds terrible too. I got it on Ebay for $1180, and $600 to deliver it from Houston to Austin. It has a nice rosewood case, definitely bumped around the edges.

2006-07-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I started this blog to document the restoration of an 1859 Erard Grand Piano--and oh yeah, I'll get to that in a minute. But anything is likely to happen. Other restorers, please feel free to contact me at thundercow @ yahoo . c o m.