What is the ornate walnut veneer used on many 1920's players?

[Dave Nereson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "gordon stelter" <lclgcnp@yahoo.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 4:55 PM
Subject: What is the ornate walnut veneer used on many 1920's players?


> List,
>      Many of you have probably seen that lovely,
> book-matched, highly figured walnut on pianos,
> particulary players, from the teens and twenties.
> WHAT IS IT ???  WHERE CAN I BUY SOME ???
>     I saw a color photo of it in "Fine Woodworking" a
> few years ago, but promply forgot its proper name.
>      Please help, if you can!
>
>     Thanks!
>     Thump

    This is no help, but I imagine that there is nowhere near the amount of
hardwood trees and varied woods available now that there were in the teens
and twenties.  Much of those hardwood forests were cut down and converted to
farmland.  But walnut is still used extensively in pianos, and Yamaha and
others use book-matched pieces on some grands.  I don't know where they get
it.  Many Asian makes now use the so-called "lauan mahogany", which isn't a
true mahogany.  And in recent decades, manufacturers have used pecan and
even stained pine, which one never sees on pianos from much earlier.  If you
have enough money, I suppose large sheets of burled walnut veneer are
available somewhere.  --David Nereson, RPT