88 Keys--The Making of a Steinway Piano by Miles Chapin

Author:Miles Chapin [Chapin, Miles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781574673951
Publisher: Amadeus Press
Published: 2013-12-05T16:00:00+00:00

At the gluing bench, a fresh pot of glue is mixed up for each piano ’s frame.

After the glue has been applied and the layers reassembled, the crew hoists the book once again and carries it over to the mold, where it will be bent into shape. The “wet” book is an ungainly thing, so the workers clasp a sheet of rough sandpaper between skin and wood to secure their grip. The inner side of the book is placed against the long, straight side of the appropriate mold and sandwiched between two thin, flexible sheets of copper. Each of these copper sheets has two electrical terminals, much like the terminals on the buttery of a car. one at either end.

Once bending begins, it is an efficient operation. All the tools the crew will need have been set out within reach, and there is little talk. Each man knows his part and goes about it with an efficiency that testifies both to his skill and to the team’s mastery of the job at hand. They are about to shape 400 pounds of rock maple into curves as nature never intended—and they have about twenty minutes to accomplish the task before the glue sets. It’s clearly a task that calls for solemn concentration.

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