Harpsichords

Well... I have a hunch that it should be playing by next week at the latest! Then there are just the final details missing: decorative paper on the inner sides, frames, lid, ruler under the keyboard and a plate with cloth to dampen non-vibrating strings... and I'd say that's it!!!

Excluding, of course, the final lacquering.

Maybe I might have even already found a buyer and they end up asking me to make a Tudor period virginal

Good evening, today I finished stringing it and started with the tangents; to make a long story short, the clavichord is starting to sound, finally! Even though the cloth for the dampers is still missing.

Brief report: 2 tangents moved, all unbound tangents fixed, 17 bound tangents on other strings are missing but to do that I have to wait a moment for the strings to stabilize in order to be able to perform a tuning, I also lowered the tuning fork by a semitone from about 600 to 550 hz.

Great news, we have finished installing all the tangents and some cloth that will temporarily dampen the non-vibrating portions of the strings; I will then have to make a walnut plate with the cloth underneath to dampen better, but as a temporary solution it is fine.

I did two small recording tests with the instrument roughly tuned.

prova.mp3

prova1.mp3

New small update: today I made the plate used to dampen the strings, walnut wood with an iron stop and two iron inserts in the side (two recycled raw dowels) and light cashmere cloth underneath (I still have to glue that one on).

Tomorrow I will recognize the front and close the two holes in the side with two small wooden nails (I drilled from the outside, otherwise the mandrel would hit against the strings)

Work of the day: gluing the cashmere cloth to the plate, sanding the entire front, and preparing and gluing the ruler under the keyboard which will also serve as the closure for the walnut cabinet.

Today I will be brief and no photos, basically the only thing I did was prepare the wood for the frames; there are more than expected, there is a kind of external mirroring with quite small frames in addition to the larger lateral and front frames on the lid (which also stabilize it) and a band of frames at the bottom, 1.4 cm thick, which covers the spruce bottom with the oak inlays.

Today I will be brief and no photos, basically the only thing I have done was prepare the wood for the frames; there are more than expected, there is a kind of external mirroring with quite small frames in addition to the larger side and front frames on the lid (which also stabilize it) and a strip of frames at the bottom 1.4 cm thick that covers the spruce bottom with the oak inlays.

Tonight I could almost just limit myself to uploading the photos.

I have prepared the low frames and glued one, and prepared the wood for the lid

Daily report: cut and glued the other lower frames and prepared part of the lid frames (it has two different frames, one under the lid to counteract any warping and one on top that acts as a mirror/matching frame)

Tomorrow the lid needs to be trimmed and the first frames there also need to be glued.

Lid under construction, frames glued and also the plate that closes the keyboard.

Pasted mirror image

I prepared two hinges for the fallboard and the keybed to close the instrument, plus two small cleats to fix the lid to the side of the instrument, and I have started sanding everything.

By Saturday, at the very least, everything must be sanded (even polished and with decorative paper, I don't think I'll have enough time) as they have asked me to present it at an exhibition in Faenza.

Brief daily report: I started sanding and filling the entire instrument, the hinges have been blued (as for the sole, we saw that it was drawn too large and doesn't fit in the small space to close my instrument, tomorrow we have to modify it a bit) tomorrow we will mount the hinges and the rings to fix the lid so that by Saturday it will at least be presentable

Since the lid is mounted (finally) the instrument is all puttied and tomorrow I will present it to the world ("

Since the lid is mounted (finally) the instrument is all puttied and tomorrow I will present it to the world ("

Today I resumed working on the clavichord, I think I've finished most of the puttying, and started applying fine sandpaper with linseed oil, only on the front: the ruler under the keyboard, the front frame, and all the shorter sides.

Tomorrow I think I will at least be able to finish sanding the instrument with oil and fine sandpaper, excluding the lid.

The next step should be to apply steel wool everywhere

Brief update (regarding the work to be done on the clavichord) I replaced a key tongue that broke when it fell, I renumbered the keys in a more hidden position, I finished oiling and applying anti-woodworm treatment to all the walnut.

Tomorrow I start applying the shellac.

Lacquered clavichord.

Put on the decorative paper and I decided that I will leave only a writing on the first key, like those original ones in Latin