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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.