David and Bill, Thanks very much for thinking about this and taking the time to respond - good points all. Yes, I agree the bubbles and soot aren't important, except as visual clues to what may have actually occurred. Obviously we can scrape, sand and refinish the board. And probably if the piano wasn't insured and money was an issue we might well elect to retain it. If it were my piano I think I'd keep it, expecially considering the age of the piano. But I think that given the uncertainties involved, and the fact that the piano is insured, it makes sense to replace the board. Best regards, Allen Wright On Apr 20, 2010, at 4:02 PM, David Love wrote: > The issue here is not so much the finish but what happened to the > panel and > the glue joints when the fire toasted the board down to some very > low EMC > and heated the rib/panel glue joints. While I am not an expert in > this > area, my recent conversations with fire restoration individuals > suggest that > once the flames actually touch the surface (especially the soundboard > directly) the potential for failure increases exponentially and the > piano is > generally written off as a total loss unless complete > remanufacturing is > planned and justified by the piano's inherent value. While there > may be > some instances of "survival" the acoustical properties and > longevity of the > glue joints (this can be in the rim and support beams as well as > the panel) > come into question. > > David Love > www.davidlovepianos.com > > > > In a message dated 04/17/10 14:21:15 US Eastern Standard Time, > akwright at btopenworld.com writes: > Our restoration shop just received a piano that's been subjected to a > pretty bizarre accident (or perhaps vandalism - we don't know) at a > school. We believe a fire burned in a rubbish bin directly underneath > this Model A (number 400028). Below you can see the results; the > soundboard got so hot that the varnish bubbled on the top side, yet > the underside suffered no actual charring or burning (note in the > second photo how the soot has been wiped away by my thumb in one > spot). The last two photos reveal that enough soot was pouring up > through the two holes in the underside (at the sustain pedal and the > plate bolt) so as to leave a residue. > > It seems to me this would be a tricky thing to pull off even if one > were deliberately trying to do it; specifically I mean getting the > board heated just enough to bubble the varnish, but not so hot it > that things caught fire and burned. A pretty flukey event! I suppose > there must have been just enough stuff in the bin to burn for just > long enough (and hot enough) to cause only this amount of damage. > > The soundboard seems fine, still has plenty of power etc. We'll be > replacing it, since the instrument is covered by insurance and it > seems the prudent thing to do. But I wonder if anyone with more > knowledge than I about internal wood structure will have an opinion > on whether any lasting damage to the board will in fact have > occurred, and if so how it might affect the tone or longevity? > > Sincerely, > > Allen Wright > London, UK > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100420/82c0f9c3/attachment-0001.htm>
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