A DAY WITH KEVIN HANCOCK
by Mike Mascelli
Sunday March 25, 2001
Near Kemptown (which is near Fredrick) MD
Somehow Robert Lock managed to pick me outa the herd of people leaving
a Southwest Flight this morning. I think the famous Shinola button mighta
tipped him off ? At least for this Groop event, Robert gets the distance
award as he flew in from Chicago, but as far as sheer determination, my hat
is off to Fred McLean who drove up from Nowhere GA, closely followed by
Dean Camenaras who came all the way from the country of Long Island
and Reed Spaulding who hauled the whole family from up near
Mt Washington NH and Larry McNeil made it from western VA.
Kevin and his lovely wife Diane opened their home to us, but it didn't
take long for the gang to migrate out to Kevin's neatly organized shop.
Kevin showed some of his current work including a beautifully grained mahogany piano
with, at the customer's request, an off the gun finish. He had another in process that is
pore filled and will eventually be rubbed out. We all got to play with the famous Kremlin
Airmix spray system. The workin end looks like a spray gun head from a pressure pot,
but it obvious that it is extremely well made. The system includes a pump that pulls the
liquid, in this case lacquer, up through a metal tube with a strainer on the end which is
stickin into an open gallon can near the floor. It the fluid and air pass through separate
hoses (kinda bulky) to deliver the very fine spray pattern.
It is obvious that Kevin knows the gun real well, but he did let all of us shoot a bit
just to see how it feels. It is a very nice rig indeed. He also has a smaller one with
a pot attached that is not exactly the same head as the other one, so Kevin calls it
his second gun. That little number was about $1200, a DEAL by Kremlin standards.
Our feature event of the afternoon was playing with some rubbing machines.
Kevin has two, and Fred brought the monster Stuhr 600. This is a dual pad machine
in which the pads move in an exactly straight line back and forth at a fairly high speed.
At 30 pounds you really have to think about picking it up off the bench !
Our project was a piano lid that Kevin got with some straight cracks in the finish, and
he sanded them out and shot some more lacquer on top. This customer could not afford
the Full Monty. The top looked great, though on close inspection the finish had some
irregularities and did need to be rubbed out. I should add that this work was done 6 months
ago, and that is a real advantage when rubbing NC lacquer, since it is hard and stable.
We started with the 500grit 3m 216 gold that Kevin loves best,
and he put a half sheet on each of the big rubber pads.
It attaches easily with the big spring clamps on each end. Once you put this thing
on the surface, a simple turn of the air valve handle on top springs it effortlessly to life.
You do have to guide in a straight line, but there is absolutely no need to press down
on it, AT ALL. It walks along and makes a perfect scratch pattern, which in this case
was with dry paper. Over the course of the afternoon went to maroon Scothbrite,
then gray, and experimented with spritzing a little water on the surface and then
adding a little WoolWax. We also put some steel wool pads under the sandpaper
without even clamping them on, and the machine is so heavy they stay right PUT.
What we learned was that this machine easily allows you to choose
how fine you scratch the surface, and thereby achieve the desired gloss.
Just for laughs, Kevin put a 1000 grit Abralon pad on his random orbit sander
and went over the rubbed surface with some water as a lube, to bring the gloss up
even more. He could have gone to 2000, or used rubbing compound to get it to
what I would call a FULL gloss, but we were all quite impressed with the surface
either after the Scothbrite, or perhaps the steel wool.
We also had an opportunity to try Kevin's National Detroit dual pad,
(you see Robert in the photo) which is similar in function
to the big Stuhr but at a much smaller size and weight.
With some controlled down pressure it does a very nice job, and at about $600 it is about
one THIRD the price of the big boy. Stuhr also has some smaller machines in this class,
and we all remarked that the machine would fill the bill for most shops who rub an occasional
table or case piece top. Kevin also has a smaller National Detroit half sheet in line sander
that reminds me a lot of the ones used in body shops. I cannot imagine holding the big Stuhr
or even the other dual pad on a vertical surface like the sides of Kevin's pianos, but this item
fills the bill perfectly. I am sure Kevin will cover all of this in his article on rubbing for PR Mag.
The most surprising thing of the day was that Kevin let Fred put the 600 back in the truck !
We hiked the 200 feet or so to the a very nice buffet in the house, but soon after we were
joined by a car weary Don Williams. Well it didn't take much for us to amble back out to the
shop and fire up the big machine again ! I think the best line of the whole weekend was when
Fred came up politely to Don's shoulder and whispered while pointing "the grain goes this way."
Thankfully Don has a great sense of humor, and believe me when I say we roared.
Of course I can't relate the numerous conversations of the day, but let me say that we
moved easily from kids and families to lacquer, sanding, pricing and almost every refinishing
topic you can imagine. It is such a comfortable feeling to know that you are among friends,
all with a common interest. And I often thought about the quiet cabinet maker in Idaho who
had an idea for using the Internet to connect refinishers. And just about then the phone rang
and it was The Boss himself ! I had to walk outside to be able to hear him over the din,
and I know he was really glad to talk to some of these folks for the first time.
Here's to you Alan.
Larry, Fred, Dean, Mike, Robert, Tredway, Reed, Kevin, Don
Let me briefly describe another interesting piece in Kevin's shop, since it provided a great
contrast to the big couch project that we got to see on Monday night. It is a small Victorian
settee with a fully upholstered curvy back and a half over the rail detail along the bottom front.
In other words, wood showing under the line of the upholstery which would be held by tacks
or covered by scroll gimp or decorative tacks. I can honestly say that I have not often seen
a frame this bad. Generations of cobblers abused it, every joint was failed or loose and not
one tacking rail was even close to being able to hold tacks. Don calls these shredded wheat.
We discussed a number of options and settled on Kevin completely removing the upper
framework and remaking it, and somehow cutting the top half inch off of the bottom frame
and replacing it with new wood. This piece is sentimental to the family who are Kevin's
good customers, but clearly not a significant historical piece. Kevin felt that it would take
him a week to reproduce all the curved and joined frame parts and repair the bottom rails,
and even at a discounted shop rate, that is a couple grand. Put five or six yards of decent
fabric on that, and we are in the low three thousands easily. Those kind of numbers make
you think a lot more about a minimally intrusive technique !
We soon came face to face with some great examples as you will see.
I saved for last mentioning a special invited guest, Tredway Childress who works as
a Senior Finisher for the US House of Representatives. He is a charming gentleman,
who fit in perfectly and had some great, and often scary stories to tell.
(Don't worry, he will be in Groop shortly).
It seem that our elected Reps have about 160,000 pieces of OUR furniture to abuse and
all the work done on them is done in house, including repair, finishing and upholstery.
Tredway had some real horror stories to tell, and all with the theme of his self-appointed
mission to help establish a conservators post at the House, and begin a process of more
careful work on historic pieces. Even if only 1% of them are historic, that represents many thousands !
Tredway retired from one career, attended Mitch Kohanek's DCTC program full time,
and continues his education continuously. His passion for the work and the collection
is contagious, and I am sure he will achieve great things. It seems that the Senate and
the White House handle the pieces in their care with a much more sensitive eye to
conservation and preservation. For all of our sakes, lets hope Tredway succeeds.
Our next trip to DC will surely include a stop in the subterranean shops of Congress !!