Music: Duke Ellington’s “Never No Lament
” (discs 1 and 2); Bill Evan’s “Everybody Digs Bill Evans
” I’d be lying if I said I am not a little disappointed in how the piano is turning out. I can’t say it was wholly unexpected and that my disappointment is even surprising, just that my expectations were high and now they are not so.
I began finishing the piano, starting with the piece of veneer. Honestly, it looked really good until I stained it, but after staining, every little imperfection came out. I thought briefly about redoing the veneer, but that is too big a step backward that I just don’t want to take for the back of the piano. I mean, don’t get me wrong: before I put the veneer on, it was a torn up, scratched, water-stained, sun-bleached nightmare. It looks 2000% better than it did, but it looks only about 85% as good as I hoped.
So, I stuck with the plan and stained the entire piano, then I went back with the brush and added the texture and depth and removed the excess stain. Even with the windows open and the fan blowing, it barely dried in time to do a second coat the next day. The second coat improved the appearance of the veneer just that little bit more. It’s okay, just not great. I found it funny that I was listening to "Never No Lament" while pondering the piano's appearance. It's good I let those thoughts go.
At the same time I was doing that, I was also outside staining the harp trim. That was just a little tricky, but I managed to get it completed and they will probably be dry enough to handle sometime today.
When I had gotten the staining out of the way, I got to work on the three pieces of the lid. The first step was to make the hinge slots a little bigger to hold the new hinges I bought. That required some delicate cutting and carving, and sure enough, with the brittle old wood, one of the pieces gave up a chunk of wood between the hinge slot and the edge of the board, and that will require extra repairing. Cosmetic this, cosmetic that. I removed the rubber baby buggy bumpers from the holes where they had been stained and sealed over, trimmed the hinge slot edges, then sanded the heck out of all three pieces, including the veneer bubbles which despite my best efforts simply cannot be repaired, due to age and the poor condition of the wood. I mean, to be fair to myself, most of the problems I’m encountering are completely unavoidable. Sure this sounds like scapegoating and rationalizing, but I’m willing to bet at least 50% of the people who might have undertaken to refurbish this piano would have long since given up. Seriously. I’ve often thought about just gutting the damn thing (in this case, leaving it gutted), and making a desk out of it. Either that or I could just cut a bit of hole to slide my Yamaha keyboard in and make a fancy “antique digital piano”.
But no. (never no lament, never no lament...) People will understand that 120-year old things don’t look perfect and they will, I hope, focus on the nice new color, the clean looking harp, the bright copper strings, and the scarlet red felt, and the lovely sound, when all is said and done. Yes, the veneer has bubbles, some of which are over a hundred years old, but you’ll be lucky if you make it to that age and don’t have a few blemishes of your own.
Today I’m finishing the harp and starting on the long hard process of staining the lid. Right after I cut the grass.
Oh, and I have to find rubber baby buggy bumpers, or, these things.
If you know where I can get any, let me know. I need four of them.
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