Chickering Brass Grand Wippen Flanges

[Patrick C. Poulson]

Hi Gang! Well, I have once again reentered the magical world of old
Chickering pianos, with the usual result of finding yet another unique
design feature from those imaginative people of the old Chickering design
team.  In this case, I found a 19th century baby grand with brass wippen
flanges, similiar in design to an upright brass rail hammer butt in that the
flange uses a plate and screw arrangement to clamp the center pin to the
flange.  There were, of course, two flanges in which the main portion of the
flange had cracked at the screw hole, and these flanges were naturally right
in the middle of the keyboard.  I borrowed the flanges from notes 87 and 88
to allow the owner to play her usual repertoire.  I am just wondering if
there might happen to be a rebuilder out there who rebuilt an action like
this in the past and, in converting the action to modern parts, had saved
some of these flanges and would be willing to part with a few.  I'm sure
there are none available in the supply house catalogs. 
    I would like to thank all of you who have been so helpful to me in the
past in dealing with these odd and/or perplexing problems that have had me
stumped in the past.  This forum is really a great thing! Thanks, Patrick
Poulson, RPT