Nothing much these days. I am regrouping, and back to slow piece by piece cleaning.
Having removed the hammer shank rail, and pulled out the keys, I am polishing them one by one with 00 grade steel wool. They come off the instrument grey with age and dust, and with the application of steel wool and elbow grease, they are restored to their warm reddish gold hue. The tops are thick with dust, the sides with crystalized sap that has exuded over the last century and a half, and the bottoms are stained from the felts they sit on. Then I spend five minutes on one, and it glows.
I set up my table, and watch an episode of standup comedy on streaming Netflix. Now I wear gloves, after the first couple sessions of chewing up my finger tips with steel wool. I brush off the loose dust with a cotton cloth, then rub down each surface with the wool. Some of the keys are stained from a spill, but that comes out with a good polishing.
It takes five or six minutes to do one key. Ten an hour. Eighty five keys in eight and a half hours. I have about forty left to finish. I have been doing six to ten each morning. Hey, it's my hobby not my job!
I have to order the front rail and balance rail felt and paper punchings. Then I can level the keyboard, and one major task will have been accomplished. Oh, I also have a handful of ivory key tops to put on. I don't know if I should replace the broken ivories, or if I should just install a new set of plastic key tops. I am inclined to the ivory, for authenticity, but a set of new bright keys sure brings a piano to life.
Decisions, decisions.
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