RonH writes:
This is Sterling circa 1880-1890. Here's the story...
It was covered in thick black coating, resultant of decades of varnishing
whenever it got too ugly to look at. The client had attempted to restore
it, and after stripping the fall board, had decided it was too much of a
job for an amature. She was referred to me and I took the job under the
condition that, after it was refinished, she wanted to "see the beautiful grain".
After it was delivered to my shop, I started in on the magical stripping of
old finish, using a mc stripper. After completing one of the side panels,
I noticed all of the "beautiful grain" was disappearing. To make a short
story long, all of the grain was factory painted. The woods consited of
poplar, mahogany, chestnut (maybe) and mahogany ply.
All with faux graining.
Well, I had to learn how to do this, in order to replace what I'd removed.
So I did.
Custom graining tools, staining formula, practice, voila!
The piano was finished with shellac, Oxford universal sealer
and 6 coats of Oxford Urethane. Off-the-gun, it was beautiful! "
In my opinion, we are our own worst critics. It is generally a rare
circumstance when a client inspects the detail of graining of a piece.
The overall impact is more important than the individual strokes.
For instance, when one observes a forest or mountain scape,
one visualizes the total impact of the scenery. We don't look at every
tree or every rock and inspect and judge. Likewise as with graining,
or finishing in general, it is the total effect that is most important.
This is not to say that anything will pass as acceptable. Care must
be taken to produce the finest end results that one is capable of.
But, I think that producing such a result is easier than we expect.
The factory graining on this piano was both with the grain
and against the grain in places. That ain't natural.
Ron Hebert
Farmington, NM
