Piano plate refinishing

[Jon Page]

Wire #'s: I see no point. Wire can be mic'd for size, besides after a while,
scales are pretty much 'guessable'. Such & such a note will take . . . .
'ballpark' then mic.  I leave them off. Extra work, extra expense, I like
a nice clean plate. I do use the Decals Unlimited #'s for model and serial #,
buried between clear coats.

For the lettering:  At Woodworker's Warehouse I happened upon a
'fluid writing pen'.  It's a small cup w/handle with a fine tube extending down.
Material is placed in the cup with a wire that was dipped into your
black. You can draw fine lines. There are two sizes.
I draw the left side of each vertical and curve, then come back and
draw the right side and fill in. This prevents a pooling of the paint.
Sharp letters, nice sarifs. If you have a steady hand, you can do the outline
stenciling of S&S on the plate. (not me)  But I can get the 'trade mark'
under the logo towards the rear pretty good.

A few years ago I refinished a custom white S&S L. I decided to do
the plate matching (creamy) white also. Since I trimmed it out
with brown felt, I did all the lettering in a custom brown. Nice touch.
Add to that a matching leather top duet artist's bench (Jansen),
now we're talking. I don't particularly like white pianos but this
one is truely eye catching.

For material for lettering: I use a material wich may be easily removed
in case of an error. Lacquer on lacquer does not just wipe off /reletter.
Mohawk has come out with some fine grain line drawing markers. I
plan to order one to sample.
Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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At 04:07 PM 3/29/97 -0600, you wrote:
>We also use smaller rub-on numbers for the wire sizes.  I have a question
<for the List about the 1/2 sizes which I will save for another post.
>We use gloss black lacquer and a small brush to highlight the raised
>lettering on the plate.
>The gloss of the black fits in well with the gloss of the clear coat.
>Joel Rappaport
>Round Rock, Texas

Jon Page
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass. (jpage@capecod.net)
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