Bending Wood and Stretching Strings

June 26th, 2009 in blogs

Ed Pirnik, Editor

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OK, confession time - I was that kid in grade school who constantly found himself in trouble for disassembling any number of objects. Stereos, lawn mowers, televisions - if I had a desire to understand how something worked, to get a feel for what made it tick, I took it apart. For the most part, I was usually able to reassemble that which my hands had undone, but . . . there were exceptions (unfortunately).

One object in our home that even my hands couldn't tackle was my mother's piano. So when author James Barron came out with a book aptly titled "Piano: The Making of a Steinway Concert Grand," I was immediately hooked. The book takes you behind the scenes at the Steinway factory in Queens, New York as a team of cabinet makers and other artisans produce concert grand number KO862.

I devoured the book when it came out in the Summer of 2006 but never realized that a feature length documentary film was also in the works at about the same time that Barron's book came on the scene.

In "Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037," director Ben Niles takes you through the entire process - from start to finish. Everything is covered - from the initial wood selection, to bending the piano's signature outer rim in the workshop. It's a must see for music lovers and woodworkers alike!

Not into actually tickling the ivories? Not a problem - have a look at reader Terry Schneider's conversion of a piano into a tool chest.

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Comments (1)

JHMurphy writes: Wow. Thanks for sharing. The book looks like something I would devour as well. I will have to track down the movie. In the meantime, the website for the movie is simply one of the best websites I've ever seen. Watch a few of the trailers and click on the 'Characters' tab to see why. http://www.notebynotethemovie.com/

Thanks again!

I similarly enjoyed Wooden Boats by Michael Ruhlman about the building of classic wooden boats. Posted: 6:10 pm on June 26th

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