Piano Refinishing

After moving several times and across the country, it was time for the old senior project to be refinished once again. This piano was manufactured around 1915 and was donated to Sunapee High School. During the 90's, a cracked pin block meant that this piano was headed to the dump. That's when I acquired it. My high school graduation hinged on the completion of this piano so, needless to say, I was a little rushed the first time around and always thought that I could have done a little better. I decided to refinish it again and make it right the second time around. If you look further down our blog, you will see a video of me playing the piano with Emily and can see the poor condition that the finish was in. I sanded down the entire body (much easier this time, especially with the help of the sun during the years this piano sat in the greenhouse).

I had a hard time finding matching veneer, so I scraped the veneer off the underside of the original piano bench with a razor blade. I used these shavings to patch the chips on the end of the keyboard.

Once it was all sanded down and patched, I applied a few coats of red stain followed by a few more of poly. See below for the final product. Despite being sanded and stained twice, much of the original high school graffiti underneath has remained intact. According to the piano, Justin Bush still loves Jen Hamel. We decided to move about two days after these photos were taken. Had I known that I would be moving the piano again, I probably would have waited.